Moving
by Judy-Licious
Summary: May totally isn't in love with her new step-brother, and Drew is totally not in love with his new step-sister. — MayDrew
1. Caroline in Love

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, if I did, Drew and May would be marrying in two weeks and Ash and Misty would have three cute ittle babies by now. But I do own Mr O'Connor and Peter. **_

**The CS-Fanfic without a name, because the author's way too dumb to think of one**

**Chapter 1: Caroline in Love**

I was nervous - in fact - very nervous. And so was my mother, who was sitting in front of me and my brother Max, not really seeming to know what to say.

Right after I got home from school she said she had something very important to tell. And now we had been sitting here staring at each other for ten minutes already.

"Mom, spit it out! You're going to drive us insane if you don't tell us already!!", I said, interrupting the silence. It was really annoying me.

"Well..." She struggeled to find the right words.

I sighed. "Do you have a lover or something?"

She shrieked. "It's more than that.", she said after a short pause.

"What do you mean by that?", I asked.

I admit, I am pretty impatient, okay, but she didn't really make it better. Couldn't she just say it already?

I looked to the left at my brother. He didn't seem to get it -_yet_. I already felt sorry for him.

"I am going to get married.", Mom said hesitantly. I flinched.

Okay, I knew the whole thing would lead in this direction...but marrying? Wasn't this a little fast?

"Mom, how long do you know that guy?", I asked, still trying to find the logic in her last sentence.

"Four months, but it's not like that! He is a reliable, lovely and reasonable man! I love him!"

Alright, now I was seriously pissed. First of all, because she didn't tell us earlier and second, because she wanted to marry some guy after dating him only for four months. I mean - how much of an airhead can someone be? And this woman was supposed to be our mother?!

"When?" I tried to hide my anger as good as I could but it was useless. I sounded as grouchy as Mr O'Connor, our neighbor, when Max shot his football in his garden again.

"Um, n-next week...", she stuttered in fear.

"WHAT?!", Max and me shouted in unison.

"Please don't be mad!"

"Seriously Mom, you're saying that you're getting married one week before the wedding? And your expecting your children to just listen and accept it?! That's absolutely ridiculous!!", I screamed with a high pitched voice.

_God, she's even more childish than Max!_

"But I really love him! It's been hard for me, too, you know! And know I'm finding the right person, so why can't you just be happy for me?!", she screamed while big tears were running down er cheeks.

_'Right person' she says...and what about Dad?_

_Looks like she already forgot about him._

Mom avoided to look at us.

I glanced at Max, who was too shocked to say anything. With a frightened, confused look he stared at Mom. I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. After repeating it a few times, I decided it was time to say something.

"And what kind of person is lover boy?", I asked trying to smoothen the mood a bit.

My mother looked up and smiled a little because someone actually said something non-negative about her marriage and even showed some interest.

"He's amazing! His name is Peter Hayden. He looks absolutely gorgeous, has a great job and a huge mansion. You're going to love it! It's-"

"We're going to what now?", I said, cutting her off.

"We're moving there.", she answered with a great smile.

But little did I know that my life was about to change more than I ever dared to think.

"Actually, we're moving there tomorrow.", she continued.

"_What_...?", I said stupidly. I wasn't able to think properly. What was happening?

_She's gone crazy, out of control_.

"And there is something else..."

_Wait! Something else? I thought we had already reached the worst state. What else can there be she didn't destroy already?_

"...he has a son.", she muttered quietly, as if she was hoping nobody heard her.

_Me and my adorable, big mouth._

"Oh God", I sighed, leaned back and closed my eyes. Maybe I could pretend the last fifteen minutes did not happen. Or maybe this whole thing was a joke.

Yeah, Mom was just playing a prank on us!

_Well, too bad. _

_Huh?_

_Mom never plays pranks on anyone - she is the one who always gets played pranks on._

"He's about your age, May.", Mom axplained. "I already met him and he's really _adorable._ I'm sure the three of you will be getting along fine! His name is Andrew."

_Adorable..._

"Please start to pack your things soon. You only have today and tomorrow. They'll arrive at 2pm.", she continued, looking at us optimistically.

I didn't really feel like talking. I had a huge lump in my throat and I just wanted to wake up out of this strange, unrealistic nightmare.

"Well, I have to pack, too.", Mom said with an awkward smile and quickly left the room. Max and me remained in silence. I sighed. All kinds of thoughts circled through my mind but I had no time to organize them. In fact - I had to leave them as they were and stay calm. At least _one_ person in this household had to act like an adult. And since my mother seemed to have lost all responsibility, that would be me.

_Okay, what to do first?_

_Max!_

"Yo.", I said to my little brother who said beside me just staring off into space. "You alright?"

He looked up. His dark eyes had lost their spark and it was written all over his face, that the situation was way beyond what he could take.

"C'mon." I tried to smile but it came out as a weird, unconvincing grimace.

Gently I wrapped my arms around him and whispered, almost chanting:"C'mon, it's alright, it's alright. It's going to be okay."

I wasn't only calming down my little brother - but also myself. Inside I was at least as hurt as him.

"I don't know hat to do!", Max cried.

"I know", I replied and stroked his head.

The worst thing was that Mom was just leaving us along. Okay, she felt awkward, but what about us?

"Mom's a stupid, mean-"

"I know, Max, I know", I said softly.

"I have an idea. Let's eat some candy and then we're going to start packing, okay?" This time, my attempt to produce a convincing smile succeeded.

He nodded hesitantly and we went into the kitchen. where Mom was busy putting plates into brown paper boxes. She looked up as we entered, but I refused to look back. Calmly I opened the cupboard, took out some chocolate bars and gave them to Max. Quickly he left the kitchen, now that he had his prey.

Mom and me were still standing there, ignoring each other. I didn't move one milimeter, while Mom continued packing.

I stared at the floor and tried to get rid of my anger, so I wouldn't start to attack her.

After a short while I raised my head, gave my mother a last angry glare before lleaving the kitchen and going upstairs to my bedroom which was a total mess. I groaned.

_How am I going to pack everything until tomorrow?_

I spent the rest of the day paking even though I wasn't able to finish, just like I had predicted. It was just not enough time. Fortunately the next was Saturday, so there was still a possibility that I could finish packing until 2pm.

I lay down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. It was a warm and mild summer night; I had my window opened and a cool breeze from outside was brushing past my face.

Once again I sighed. It felt like it was the only thing I had done today.

_Why does my mother have to be so stupid?_

_She's just in love._

_That doesn't really make a difference._

_...you know you're arguing with yourself, right?_

_So what?_

_Just checking._

Today had been one of the most exhausting days in my entire life and tomorrow didn't seem on going to be any better.

_What a pain..._

I closed my eyes and listened to the wind blowing past the trees.

Then everything faded to black.

* * *

At 7am my alarm clock started ringing and I turned on the other side. I was still half asleep and _really_ didn't want to wake up. But the ringing was too loud and annoying to ignore it. I sat up and switched the stupid machine off. Good. Silence.

I looked out of the window. The weather wasn't too nice. It would probably startto rain soon but I was not unhappy because of that. The grey sky actually resembled my mood very good.

I left my warm and comfortable bed, picked up some random clothes and went into the bathroom to shower.

When I was finished I walked downstairs in the kitchen. A little dark haired boy with glasses sat at the table and was busy eating a sandwich.

"Good morning.", I said.

"Morning, sis.", he replied.

"Swallow first before speaking." He grinned.

_Good, at least for now crying's over._

"Here", he pointed at a bunch of sandwiches on a big plate infront of him.

"Mom made them for us."

_At least she made us breakfast. Hooray._

After breakfast I went back to my room to continue packing. It was troublesome, but thanks to my mother it had to be done.

* * *

At eleven o'clock I was finally finished. All my stuff was now in seventeen paper boxes. I really did it. And I had still three hours left. I sat down on the floor, took out my red cell phone and started to dial the number of my best friend Misty.

"Hello?", said a girlish voice at the other end.

"Hi, it's me.", I said.

"Hey, May! How're you?", she asked happily.

"Could be better.", I admitted.

"Why? Did something happen?" She sounded worried.

"Well, yeah.", I answered hesitantly. "We're moving."

"What?! When? Where?", she shouted almost screaming. God, that girl had a loud voice.

"Not so many questions at once, please.", I laughed. "Mom's going to get married. _Next week._ And today we're moving to her lover's house."

"No way! Why didn't you tell me earlier?", she asked, while I was wondering if I just heard a little hint of despair in her voice.

"I couldn't, sorry. Mom just told us yesterday.", I explained.

"WHAT?", she screamed in the reciever.

"It's the truth. I couldn't believe it myself.", I said, wondering when she would finally stop screaming blue murder.

"Your Mom's crazy!", she exclaimed.

"Tell me something I don't know.", I replied sarcastically.

"...is it far away?", Misty asked with her voice almost shaking.

"Truth to be told: I have no idea. But believe me, I'm not going to change schools!", I said determined.

"Okay.", she sighed relieved. "...but did you meet that guy who she's marrying yet?"

"No, but I'm going to today. Oh, by the way, he has a son!"

"What? Seriously? What age?", she sniggered in disbelief.

"Fortunately, he's at my age. With another little brother, I would've gone crazy!", I answered.

"Good!", she laughed. "But...will he go to our school?"

"Uh...I forgot to ask. I'm gonna call you again tonight and tell you, okay?"

"Alright, and tell me how he is!", she demanded.

"Got it. I hope, he's not annoying though. Mom said that he's _adorable_.", I frowned.

"Ugh. Usually that's not a very good sign. But if you're lucky, he's a total hottie after all! Then you could start a little forbidden romance! If you ask me, that's exactly what you'd need!", she suggested with a wide grin in her voice.

"Huh?", I asked dumbly.

"I mean - you're not blood related and a boyfriend wouldn't be too bad, right?"

"Well, uh, no...", I admitted, doubting that any of that was going to happen.

"Oh! My sisters are calling! Sorry, but I have to go. But don't forget to tell me _everything_.", she exclaimed suddenly.

"Yeah, yeah, I won't. See ya."

"Bye!"

She hung up.

I looked at the clock. It was half past eleven. What was I going to do the next two and a half hours? I had finished packing earlier than I expected.

"May!!", a shaky voice interrupted my thoughts from further down the corridor.

"Oh, what now?", I groaned and followed the sound of the voice into Max' room.

"What is it?", I asked sceptically. His room was messy and all sorts of things were scattered on the floor. He had only packed five boxes yet.

"Please help me!", he cried.

_Gosh, being a big sister is such a pain! Good thing that I'm getting help soon._

"Can't do it alone, huh?", I groaned whilst looking once again at the mess in his room. "You're even worse than me."

"Please!", he repeated with teary, wobbly eyes.

"Alright, alright."

That'd be a close one.

* * *

At 2:15pm the door bell rang. I jerked and looked up from my book that I had read for the past twenty minutes. Strained I concentrated on what happened downstairs. Strangely it remained absolutely silent. Then it rang again.

I waited. Silence.

I stood up and rushed downstairs.

"Can't somebody open that freaking door?!", I yelled angrily, while opening the door.

"Hello, you must be May.", a friendly tall man with light brown hair infront of me said.

"Oh" I blushed. I hadn't been really aware that I was saying 'that' out loud. "Yes, I am.", I muttered in embrrassment.

"My name is Peter Hayden and this is my son Andrew.", he smiled cheerfully.

I looked from Peter down to 'Andrew'. When I saw his face my jaw dropped and I couldn't help but being shocked. I was not expecting _this._ 'Andrew' was the most good-looking boy I had ever seen.  
'Good-looking' didn't really fit. No word was able to describe his gorgeousness.  
He had silky, emerald hair and eyes. He wore a black hoody and dark blue jeans. His hands were plunged in his pockets.

Whilst I was staring at him in surprise and disbelief, he said to his father:"_Drew_, Dad, not Andrew." and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, sorry.", Peter replied and scratched his head.

Then slowly Drew turned to me and chuckled when he saw that I was still gaping at him with that stupidly shocked face of mine.

"Hello, May, _pleased to meet you_. I'm Drew." I blushed.

_I know that, idiot._

"Hello, _Andrew_. Nice to meet you, too.", I countered and a slight smirk appeared on my face.

_How's it going, jerk?_

He didn't seem to be too pleased about my remark and flicked his hair.

"Whatever."

_Nice one, May!_

"Peter! Andrew!", a voice from behind called. Mom ran towards the three of us with a big, welcoming smile on her face. Eagerly she hugged and kissed Peter.

Drew and me avoided to look at them. I still wasn't used to the fact that Mom had a new lover and Drew seemed to feel uncomfortable, as well.

"Do you want to come in, or what?", I groaned.

Drew entered immediately. Peter and Mom were still... _busy._

"So...how long do you know about this?", I asked insecurely after a short pause.

"Since two weeks. You?" I didn't know why, but he seemed somewhat bored.

"Since yesterday", I asnwered quietly.

He shot me an odd look. "What?"

"Mom told us yesterday.", I repeated.

"Okay...? You're mother is weird.", he said sardonically.

I sighed. As if I didn't know that.

"You're not going to get mad?", he asked irritated.

"Because you called my mother weird? Nah, I've been told that already so many times and besides, that's also my opinion.", I grinned.

Drew looked surprised, like he wasn't expexting an answer like that. He snickered.

"What's so funny?", I asked sceptically.

"Nothing", he laughed as he flicked his hair.

"Are you_ always _doing that?", I muttered.

_My God, he looks absolutely great but he's so..._arrogant_._

"Huh? What do you mean?", he asked as if he _really_ didn't know what I meant.

_Crap, he heard me!_

"Nothing", I frowned.

_What have I gotten myself into?_

* * *

**Please review and tell me what you think. And please don't be too harsh because English is not my first language. -is German- DX And if someone found grammar/spelling errors, please tell me! I'm trying to avoid them but it happens all the time!**

**Btw, if someone of you has a good idea for a name for this fic, then don't hesitate to contact me! I'm also thinking, but it still seems like my brain is too small to produce a good one. =/ **

**-Judy xoxo**


	2. New Life?

**A/N: I thank Taylor Swift, Metro Station, 3Oh!3 and a lot of other artists for lightening up my mood, while writing this and recharging my inspiration. :D**

**Chapter 2: My new life?**

_**Drew's/Normal POV:**_

_What an awfully small house_, Drew grinned to himself, while looking around in the hall of the house owned by his Dad's wife-in-law. Boxes were standing around, paling up and the cupboard, where normally shoes were at home - so he guessed – was now empty. _Well, at least compared to ours. I bet May here is going to be knocked out of her socks __when she sees it._

His grin grew wider. He didn't know why, but somehow it appeared that his new step sister was the exact opposite of what he expected her to be - and _somehow_ it appeared that he didn't dislike that at all. Which actually was somewhat weird for him, because he generally got bored with girls very easily since they were either staring at him like they were about to lose consciousness or trying to hit on him. But she, May Maple seemed completely different. She had blushed at his appearance, but it looked like she wasn't interested in him that way at all. She even fought back to his remarks, instead of starting to sulk or cry, which happened to be the normal responses. And that made it a lot more fun teasing her. Drew really started to get curious what she was like, apart from what he already witnessed.

"Do you have a reason for looking at yourself in a mirror, while smiling like an utter idiot?" May asked with an odd look on her face.

Drew flinched and recognized that there _really_ was a mirror, in which he _really_ had been looking himself at, smiling. He blushed in embarrassment.

_Shit, while I was thinking I didn't recognize that damn mirror! And why of all things did I have to smile?_

_But now that she mentions it - I really look good._

_...no, I did NOT just think that._

"Hello? Drew?" the brunette called, waving with her hand in front of his face.

"Yes?! Something wrong?" he shrieked, blinking irritated.

"You know what? Forget it." she frowned and shook her head.

"About that mirror thing - don't get the wrong idea! I did that unconsciously." Drew explained after a short pause.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say, but they end up doing it again." she smirked.

For a moment Drew didn't know what to say. This girl surely was something else. The way she kept fighting and giving him remarks like that…

He tried to hold back but it was no use and thus, he burst out into laughter, while May could just stand there asking herself why the heck that boy started to laugh since there didn't seem to be an understandable reason.  
When Drew looked up, the sight of her confused expression caused a new wave of laughter to hit him.

_I could REALLY get used to this!_

Meanwhile Caroline and Peter were finished with _greeting_ themselves and came up to their children.

"Wow, you two get along better than I thought!" Caroline exclaimed happily.

"Yeah, Drew seems…to really _like_ May." Peter laughed.

"Then how about you introduce Max to him, while we and the people of the moving company start to load our things in the furniture van, May?" Caroline suggested.

"Sure, okay.", May shrugged.

Then the couple walked outside to get the moving company people.

"So, let's go meet Max." May said to Drew, who now had finally calmed down.  
He nodded and the two of them went upstairs to the first room after the stairs, where a raven haired boy with glasses sat on the floor, surrounded by stacks of brown boxes, and played something on his Nintendo DS. He looked up when May and Drew entered the room.

"Hey, Max. This is Andrew Hayden." May simply said and pointed at Drew. Max looked like he knew immediately who that green haired and eyed, good looking teenage boy was.

"Hello, nice to meet you." he said, not even thinking about standing up and greeting Drew properly, who gradually began to feel more and more awkward about the situation.  
His father had told him about Caroline having two children - a fourteen years old girl and a eight years old boy, but Drew hadn't felt the need to care. For him there'd been no doubt that he didn't have to get along with them since they weren't and never would be his _real_ siblings.

But now that he was standing right in front of Max, feeling unpleasantly confronted with his little step brother, he had the impulsive and instinctive urge to say something that didn't make the pitch-black haired boy even more uncomfortable.  
Drew knew it. He had to do something. _Just what?_

"Hey, pipsqueak, nice to meet ya, too!" he said finally, trying to sound as casually and mocking as he could.

"_Pipsqueak_?!" Max gritted through his teeth.

It worked!

"Do I have to say it twice?" Drew asked, acting as if he was annoyed.

"No, but anyway - are YOU really in the position to say that? To me you look pretty small yourself! You're merely taller than May." Max yelled with an evil smirk arising on his face.  
May looked at Drew, as if she was trying to find out whether what her little brother said was true or not. She grinned appreciative after realizing that he'd been right. Drew flicked his hair.

"But you're still smaller than me." he said, almost singing the words.

"Oh really, Captain Obvious? Well, that's because I'm younger than you!" Max snorted.

Drew laughed. Of course he knew all that. The only reason he started this 'fight' was to lighten up the mood a bit and it seemed that he succeeded.

When he glanced at May, he was surprised to see that she smiled and when she recognized his look, she returned it with a warm, welcoming expression which was meant to say that she was grateful for what he'd done. It was exactly this expression that caused that strangely pleasant, secure felling in Drew's chest.

_Unexpected_. Yes, unexpected and new was this feeling.

He shook his head to get rid of those distracting thoughts and that weird emotion to concentrate on what he was doing before he had been caught off guard by May's look. What had he been doing? Oh yeah, he'd talked to Max.

"What are you playing there anyway?" Drew asked, coming closer to Max, who stood up to show Drew the display of his light blue Nintendo Ds Lite. "It's Pokémon."

"Which edition?" Good, he played Pokémon. This meant the two of them had at least one thing in common. It was something they were able to share and talk about and that was definitely a good thing.

"'Diamond'. I don't have 'Platinum' yet but I'm getting it at my birthday.", Max explained with an excited look on his face.

"Great! I also have the 'Diamond' edition! Do you have any other versions despite that one?", Drew asked further, now really getting into it.

"YOU like Pokémon?!", May shouted suddenly, her eyes widening in disbelief.

Drew turned around. "Yeah, do you have a problem with that?"

"No, I, uh...just didn't expect you to be a fan of it.", May stammered and looked down at her feet, seemingly feeling a little ashamed of her sudden outburst.

"Well, I am one. How about you?" A small, mocking grin flashed over his lips.

"Huh?"

"I'm asking whether you like it or not." he repeated. There was it again; that smirk, that he was just not able to avoid.

"Oh, yeah, sure I do." she murmured with a slight blush on her face, secretly slapping herself eternally for acting so plain dumb.

Before Drew was able to answer, Max poked him, in the other hand holding a little marine colored box.

"What's that?"

"In this box are all my games!" Max announced with a proud voice.

"Then stop grinning and show me!" Drew laughed as the boy obeyed and opened the box.

Drew was rather impressed about that little boy's collection of Pokémon games. He even had the old ones, which you could only buy at weird bazaars for ridiculously high prizes.

"Surprised, eh?" May grinned. She also sounded proud. "Some of these were actually mine, before I gave them to Max."

"Wow, that's really cool. Compared to yours, my collection looks really poor!" Drew laughed and ruffled with his hand through Max' hair.

_Wow, I never thought, I'd say his, but having a little brother could actually be fun._

_Especially when he has such an amazing collection of games._

**May's POV:**

I couldn't believe what I saw. Drew laughed sweetly, saying _his_ collection of Pokémon was poor compared to Max' and RUFFELED his hair. I never thought to ever see such an expression on his face - especially not around my oh so annoying little brother.  
Somehow that looked really wrong. According to my first impression Drew Hayden was an arrogant jerk, but that image faded further and further away into darkness, because he apparently seemed to like children!

I t was acutally a very cute sight, which even made my heart throb a little.

_Oh, c'mon! Stop squealing. PLEASE._

"May, Andrew, Max!!" a female voice bawled from downstairs, disturbing the new siblings' little moment.

"Coming!" I shouted back, as Max put his Nintendo and his games into a green backpack.

Drew muttered something like 'It's _Drew_!' and slowly left the room. I watched him slide his hands into the pockets of his jeans, while he shuffled downstairs. I couldn't help but smile about the fact that Drew wasn't so bad after all.

_Maybe someday we'll actually be like real brother and sister._

When Max was finished, I took his hand and we followed Drew downstairs, where Mom and Peter already waited for us.

"May, Max, Drew. Could you now please help us carry all that stuff in the van?" Peter asked and pointed at the open door. Outside I could see several men, trying very hard to load our sofa into a red printed van.

We nodded obediently and thus, I spent three damn hours carrying furniture and boxes into that ridiculously big furniture van.

* * *

At half past five we were _finally_ finished and our house was completely empty and cleaned from our things. I sighed and looked at our home which wasn't going to be _ours_ for much longer.

A single tear ran down my face.

"Hey, are you alright?" a boy's voice asked concerned and it felt like I knew it already my whole life. I turned around and Drew's two emerald colored orbs looked at me, filled with worry. I wiped the tear from my cheek and actually wanted to make a sarcastic remark but instead I just said, "It's just… I lived here since I was born and I don't really want to move. _This_ is my home."

"Oh", he simply said and glanced at his feet.

'_Oh'? What's that supposed to mean? Can't he come up with something more… original?!_

Luckily I didn't have to bother on thinking further on that topic, because Peter came

towards us. "I've finished the business with the moving company. We're now heading off to our new home! So let's hit the road!"

His whole face shined of joy and optimism, which were immediately destroyed by Drew's and mine gloomy expressions. Feeling awkward and irritated, Peter rushed off to his car, that didn't match his personality at all, - since it was apparently large, extravagant and black - as fast as he could.

I threw my old house a last, desperate look, before following Peter to his car with Drew coming along as I did so. _Good bye, house. Good bye forever._

When we arrived at the car, Max already had taken his seat at the right window and was busy with playing Nintendo again.

Drew waited like a gentleman for me to get in the car first, what surprised me to death. I took advantage of his sudden friendliness and sat down on the back seat in the middle. Then Drew got in the car, as well, and thus Peter started the motor and slowly the car began to move away from the place I loved and never wanted to leave.

Faster and faster we drove through the streets. I didn't care where we were actually heading to.  
Another tear rolled down my cheek. Then suddenly a hand from the left seat beside me, gently wiped it out of my face. I looked up, as my heart was pounding hard against my chest, but Drew just sat there casually and watched the scenery outside zooming past the car window, while I was wondering why the gosh darned heck I was so affected by a guy I had just met today.

"It's okay, if you're sad to leave your home, but also try to see the good things, okay?" Drew said and finally looked at me.

"What good things?" I tried to smile but it ended up as a strange grimace.

"That our parents are happy, for example."

That surprised me - so much, in fact, that I didn't know what to answer. I never considered being happy for my mother one second until now. I just had been angry:  
I directed my look at Mom, who laughed cheerfully together with Peter. I felt that Drew was right.

_Somehow this really bugs me._

I sighed and closed my eyes. That guy really irritated me.

_First he behaves like a total idiot, then he's nice to Max and now he takes care of ME?! _

_And why am I even thinking about him so much?_

A sudden giggling from the left interrupted my thoughts and I opened my eyes, just to see a certain green haired boy bursting out into laughter once again.

"God, what is it with you?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"Nothing! Haha - it's just - haha - your expression just now! Like you were trying to figure something out but didn't come to a conclusion!" he laughed and held his stomach.

_Not something, someone._

"Yeah, so?" I shot him a confused glance.

"It - hahaha - just looked hilarious!" He didn't even seem to try to get a hold of himself.

"O...kay?" Things definitely kept getting weirder and weirder.

"WE'RE HERE!!" I heard my Mom screaming out of nowhere, as the car stopped abruptly.

A little strained I left the car to take my first look at my new home - but couldn't believe what I saw, when I did. _Okay_, Mom had mentioned a mansion but I never imagined it to be _that_ huge.

It had three floors, not including the attic and I guessed that it had to have at least twenty rooms in it, perhaps even more.

The front of the house looked old, but simple with red bricks as the façade, at which some sort of wine-like plant with dark red leaves was creeping up. I didn't know why, but I somewhat liked it already. Maybe this was that love at first sight thing Mom always spoke about. Only that I fell for a building – literally of course.

"Not bad, huh?" Drew asked proudly.

"No, it's really…cool." I smiled back.

"Drew, could you please show these two their rooms?" Peter called, while carrying three boxes simultaneously through the front door.

"Sure", he answered and turned back at me and Max, who had just left the car. "Let's go."

Together, the three of us entered the house. Again Max and me halted, gaping in surprise at the grand entrance hall with beutiful, white marble stairs.

"This way", Drew said, pointing at a door in the left of the hall, not very impressed by the sight of it, since he lived here probably already his whole life. Obediently Max and me followed him upstairs.

"Who wants to go first?" Drew asked as he stopped in a corridor in the third floor.

"Me! Me!" Max shouted eagerly.

"Okay, little man." Drew laughed, took Max' hand and opened a door on the left. "This is you room." he said to Max, who couldn't enter faster to explore his new room.

I glanced through the door. _Wow_, I thought surprised, almost jealous. _His room is huge! _

_Lucky basta- _

_WHAT exactly am I thinking?! He's my little brother!!_

"Do you want to see yours now?" Drew offered, who was now leaving Max alone and looked at me with a mischievous smirk.

_Oh no, why is he smiling like that? I have a _bad_ feeling…_

"Yes" I gulped, as he opened a door on the right wall a little further down the corridor.

_Hesitantly_, I walked towards it. What did you think after THAT suspicious grin? A drop of sweat was running down my neck.  
Maybe my future room was absolutely small or super unclean and full of spider webs! Everything but _that!_ It is sort of hard to admit but I'm a total girl when it comes to spiders (and cleaning off their webs).

Finally I managed to gain enough courage to enter the room, but stopped at the doorframe to gasp at it in shock. But not because the room was full of spider webs or because it was microscopically tiny. It was actually more like the absolute opposite. The room was at least three times larger than my old one, had a balcony and a walk-in closet. The walls were painted in a pastel shade of mint-green; the wooden floor was probably made out of teak, even though I wasn't entirely sure - to say it in short: It was entirely gorgeous.

"Do you like it?" Drew asked curiously.

"Like it? Are you mad!? It's fantastic!" I exclaimed in joy.

Drew snickered. Then suddenly a different thought crossed my head.

"Oh, now that we're at it! Where's your room?"

Drew looked up and pointed at the door beside mine. "It's right over there."

_...no._

"Seems like we're neighbors." Drew continued, not even thinking about stopping that arrogant smirk of his.

_I don't like this at all…_

"Anyway, let's go downstairs and help." he suggested, still grinning.

I nodded and so, once again I spent various hours with carrying boxes and furniture. Only this time, I was carrying them into a house and not out of one – which didn't make it _any_ less exhausting at all.

* * *

At 8:30pm we were finally finished. Although we still had to unpack almost all the boxes, but Mom and Peter decided to spare us and call a food delivery - since they were obviously too tired (or lazy) to cook themselves - instead. Max, Drew and me were very grateful for their apparent mercy.

Ten minutes after Mom had called 'Papa Enzo's Pizza Delivery' to deliver two Salami Pizzas for Peter and herself, one Hawaii Pizza for Max and two Margarita Pizzas for Drew and me, a delivery boy of ca. fifteen years with blond, spiky, curly-ish hair (1) arrived to give us the said Pizzas.  
Peter paid and the boy left.

As the air filled itself with a delicious sent of Pizzas, none of us could resist any longer and without much more hesitating, we started to eat. While enjoying my vegetarian Pizza, it felt like all the hardships, I went through today, had been really worth the work. According on how everybody else looked, they thought the same. I smiled. Suddenly, having two extra family members and a brand new house didn't seem to be so depressing and intimidating anymore as it did only twenty-four hours ago. My chest still contracted, when I thought about my old home, but I couldn't live in the past forever.  
I had to move on, even though I only partly wanted to.

After finishing the meal I wondered, if I should go to bed immediately or… _Misty! _Suddenly I remembered that I had promised to call her. But first there was something else to do.

I walked towards Peter who was putting the dirty plates into the dishwasher.

"Hey, Peter! Do you have a map of the city?", I asked, as Peter turned around.

"Sure. Wait a sec.", he replied, opening a cupboard to rummage for something. "Found it!", he exclaimed and gave me the wanted map.

I thanked him and went upstairs into my room.

Unfolding the map, I sighed.

_Why didn't I pay attention while we were in the car? Now I have to SEARCH where I am._

_You make it sound like that's just a waste of time but if you ask me, it'd be pretty _useful_ to know_

_Where you are__._

_Good point._

In the register of the streets I searched for 'Conrad Avenue'.

_A, B, C…_

_Ah, there it is!_

After also finding the location of my former home, I was baffled. 'Conrad Avenue' was only a few streets away from where I had lived before.

_Now that I think of it – the drive didn't really take long…_

That meant my way to school couldn't be that much longer than it did before. This really was a relief. Now I didn't have to get up thirty minutes earlier and take a one hour ride to school…

I looked at my wrist-watch and flinched. It was already a quarter to ten.

Hoping that Misty was still up, I dashed down the stairs.

_Third floor, second floor ,first floor…_

_Finally there!_

WHACK!

Thanks to my fast running, I'd bumped into something rather soft - but still bounced off - and fell to the ground.

I looked up and saw Drew. So he was the one I ran into.

"Ow!" he moaned, stroking his head. It appeared that it hit the wall behind him. Fortunately _I_ didn't get any injuries besides an aching butt. I got up and stretched my hand out as a help. He took it and stood up, still rubbing the back of his head.

"Sorry"

"Just pay attention next time."

"I will!" I called and saluted.

Drew sniggered. "No need to be _that_ formal. Why were you running like that anyway?"

"I wanted to make a call. But come to speak of it – I have no idea where the phone is." I admitted.

"It's right beside you", Drew snorted as my skin tinted crimson red for not noticing.

_Why do I always end up being embarrassed in front of him?_

_It's not like it is his fault. You _were_ pretty stupid for not seeing it._

_Oh, by the way – why are you always insulting me? Aren't you me?!_

_What? It's my job to disagree with you._

Still angry at myself and embarrassed to death, I took the phone out of the charging station and returned to my room without further talking to Drew, whom I heard laughing, while I went upstairs.

_I swear, if that nut-job of a boy ever laughs at me again, I'm going to send him straight to hell._

_No need to get all violent._

I groaned as I sat down on my bed and started to dial the number of my best - female, for that matter – friend Misty Waterflower for the second time that day.

"Hello, Waterflower residence", a melodic female voice answered the phone.

"Hi, it's May. Could I please talk to Misty?"

"Oh, hey May! Sure, wait a moment", Lily Waterflower, one of Misty's three older sisters, said friendly and I heard how she dropped the phone to get her little sister.

"May?" Misty asked.

"No, it's the muffin man", I replied, rolling with my eyes.

"Ha, ha. You sure know how to joke, don't you?" she said sardonically. "Anyway, what happened? Tell me _everything._"

Obediently I told her all that had happened today, after I had called her, in closest detail.

"Wow", she exclaimed after a short pause of processing that large amount of input. "Seems like you really had a long day!"

"You have NO idea", I sighed.

"But I was right after all!" I could hear the evil smirk in her voice again, exactly like this morning.

"Right with what?" I asked skeptically.

"With Drew being a total hottie!" she answered while her smirk grew wider.

_Ugh. She's at it again._

_This is not good._

_You're AGREEING with me? I thought it was your job to do the exact opposite!_

_Whatever._

"Hold it, Misty! Hold it right there!" I yelled, hoping to be able to stop her before she could _even_ start about that whole 'forbidden romance' thing.

"Why? What's your problem?" she asked with a sulky voice.

"I just don't like this romantic stuff. Besides – we're brother and sister, remember?" I tried to convince her.

"But you're not blood related. And I think you should finally get yourself a boyfriend!" she called determined.

"As if you had one." I countered.

"Hey, c'mon, don't be mean!" she shouted angrily with her voice slightly shaking.

"I know, I know. You're waiting for the right opportunity to get Ash." I sighed.

"You finally got it, huh?"

Ash Ketchum was my other, best friend. He was in the same class as me and Misty and I met him together with Misty in the first year of middle school. He and Misty were childhood friends and did almost everything together. They had a typical love-hate relationship, in which - very much to Ash's regret - Misty wore the pants and punched him regularly. It was her way to show him that he liked him. (A very dubious method if you ask me.)

But since all the attempts to tell him how she felt had failed, even though it was obvious that he liked her back, she'd vowed that she would make Ash her boyfriend until the end of summer break. And currently she waited for the perfect moment to do it.

And exactly that Ash was my problem. Or more the reason why I absolutely wanted to avoid the 'forbidden romance' thing, that I wasn't interested in anyway.

To make it plain and simple: _I was in love with Ash_.

Thus, I was already busy hiding my crush from the world – which also included Misty, of course- and trying to help her in confessing her love to my crush. There was no space for a forbidden romance or Drew. _Duh_.

"I have an idea!" she suddenly said.

_I'm sensing trouble._

"What kind of idea?" _Oh, do I really want to know?_

"How about I come over tomorrow and look at the house and also at your hot step brother?"

_WHAT?_

"Uh, you know, we still have to unpack and stuff… I don't really think, that's a good idea."

"Oh man, you're no fun! I won't bother you! I could even help you with unpacking." she pleaded, eager and determined, yeah, almost _desperate_ to come.

_She only wants to see Drew. And she won't stop until she does. But I'm SO going to upset that plan._

"Fine. You won. But you're REALLY going to help me, understood?" I said with a hard voice. There was no way, I would let her get away with just coming over, disturbing me and gawking at Hot-Drew.

"I promise." I couldn't help but smirk smugly. She would be going to regret what she just said.

"Good girl. When do you want to come?"

"Is two o'clock okay", she asked happily.

"Yeah.", I answered not half as enthusiastically as she was, even though the imagination of Misty Waterflower as my own personal moving helper was actually pretty exciting.

"You sound really exhausted. I think, you should go to bed and get some sleep now.", she said, apparently being serious again.

"Probably a good idea.", I agreed tiredly. We decided to say goodnight to each other and hung up.

I stood up, returned the receiver to the charging station (only this time without _running_ downstairs) and began to get myself ready for bed, while I thought about the last two days. I had always considered my life as unspectacular and quiet – but in a good way. _Until now_.

_Oh, what happened to the peacefulness and silence? _

I hadn't been a bad girl. I was nice. I'd even given up on Ash to help Misty.

I sighed – probably for the hundredth time that day already.

_Seems like somebody up there doesn't really like me._

_**

* * *

**_

**A/N: (1) – Did you notice? The Pizza delivery guy was Barry! Lol. I failed at describing him, though. So don't feel bad for not recognizing him! **

**What will happen when Misty visits May at her new home? And is May really going to ask Drew out? You can read the thrilling conclusion after the next update, which is hopefully coming very soon. So stay tuned. I'm also very excited already, since even I don't know what's going to happen. (Is shot by readers) Just kidding. ****J**** I may not have all planned out, but I'm pretty sure about the next chapter and even started writing it already. I think…**

**Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter! :3 **_**PLEASE REVIEW! **_**It helps me to continue writing! **

**-Judy B-D**

* * *

_**Preview of chapter 3:**_

"Misty! I'm really grateful, because I know, you just want to help me, but…I don't think this is the right way! I don't want to be Drew's girlfriend and I guess, he doesn't want to be my boyfriend, either." I smiled, as she lifted her head.

"But - you two would be perfect together!" she whispered with a pleading look on her face.

_No._

"Misty…", I started and my eyes began to widen.

_Oh, hell no._

"Why not try to ask him out?" she asked. Her pleading look was apparently changing into that of a puppy: Cute, wobbly and irresistible.


	3. Misty Waterflower, and Other Disasters

**Chapter 3: Misty Waterflower and other disasters**

_**Misty's POV:**_

It was a wonderful, sunny Sunday morning in the beginning of June when Misty Waterflower was approaching the huge mansion at Conrad Avenue number 21 for the first time. She was fidgeting and feeling very excited.

That beautiful building in front of her was the new home of her best friend May Maple.  
She had moved here just yesterday due to her mother's upcoming marriage with Peter Hayden.  
While having a thorough talk with May on the phone, Misty had decided to come here to examine the new house – but also the step brother Andrew 'Drew' Hayden, who was apparently hot as hell.

Misty looked at the display of her cell to check the time. She was a quarter too early, but who could blame her? She was _dying_ to meet Drew and see that him and May became a couple. Yes, that had been Misty's secret plan ever since she first heard of him. Why? – Because May needed a boyfriend. She'd been helping Misty in her love life already for so long and now it was time that she repaid that debt. Not to mention Misty _loved_ to pair off people.

After two minutes of nervous, impatient waiting, Misty decided that it didn't matter, even if she came thirteen minutes too early and rang the door bell.  
About half a minute passed; then someone _finally_ opened the door.

It was then Misty's jaw dropped to his maximum extend and she couldn't help but gape at the person, who'd opened the door.

The boy in front of her had shiny, thick green hair and a slender figure, but Misty could spot a definite six pack under his black t-shirt.

_I bet this is Drew!!_

"Hello, can I help you with something?", Drew asked, casually ignoring the amazed gaze of the girl in front of him – he was already used to that. Girls happened to do that a lot, in fact.

"Yes, My name's Misty Waterflower, a friend of May. I'm here to visit her and don't worry – she knows that I'm coming!", Misty burst out in excitement. It was too late; she wasn't able to control herself anymore. With this boy she had found the absolute perfect boyfriend candidate! Now the only thing left to do for her was working her magic and hoping luck and a little help from God would do the rest.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Misty", Drew answered, giving Misty the sweetest smile, which made her heart melt like butter, sliding down a hot toast. " I am Drew Hayden, May's new step brother. Come in, I'm leading you."

As she entered the house, Misty took a deep breath to calm herself down. She couldn't let herself get distracted by his looks and had to focus on her mission! Even though Drew did not make it easy for her. _Seriously_, if he wanted, he could get world domination within a few seconds; he'd just have to ask for it.

Angrily, she shook her head to get rid of these thoughts, which were almost more distracting than the emerald haired boy himself, who was walking upstairs in front of her.  
Before any more of those thoughts were able to arise in her head, Misty suddenly remembered something else.

"Well, Drew", she stammered insecurely. "Since your dad and May's mom are getting married…uh, will-will you transfer to our school?"

_God, how lame was that, 'Stutter Queen'?_

"No", Drew simply answered without the slightest hint of hesitation. "Because of my friends and stuff, you know?"

"Oh", was the only thing she managed to say in her disappointment.  
She had already painted everything out: How Drew would transfer to their school, how him and May would eventually become an adorable couple and _of course_ how Ash and herself would get together. It would've, _no_, it should've been the perfect happy ending. But now Misty was anything but happy, seeing her hope and dreams suddenly being shattered into tiny pieces.  
This was _so_ not cool.

**WHACK!**

Misty hadn't kept attention on where she was going and bumped into something in front of her – or _someone?_

Misty blushed, when she looked into two emerald orbs, which were only a few centimeters away from her.

_Crap!_

Drew stood right in front of her and had apparently stopped moving. So it was also partly his fault that she walked into him. _Good._ That made the whole thing less embarrassing.

"Um, why did you stop walking?" Misty asked and tried to over talk the awkward moment as casually as she could.

"We're here", Drew replied and raised a green eyebrow, as if he wanted to imply that Misty's intelligence seemed very questionable to him.

She could feel even more blood rush to her cheeks. _God_, if she could just stop blushing every time she got embarrassed!

Drew merely cracked a smirk and then knocked at May's bedroom door.  
For a moment there was just silence…then all of a sudden the two teenagers heard a loud noise coming from the inside of May's room and Misty believed to recognize her best friend cry out in pain.

Drew and Misty shot each other a worried glance and quickly opened the door just to see a very displeased May, who was surrounded – or a better way to say it – _covered_ with books. Beside her lay a silver ladder.

"Hey Misty!" May called out, waving.

"What did you _do_?" Misty asked, rolling her eyes and walked towards her friend to free her from the pile of books.

"I was just trying to put _these_", May pointed at the huge amount of books around her, "into a shelf, when the two of you knocked. That actually sort of scared me, I started to stagger and fell down the ladder.", she explained, as if it was the most normal thing in the world – well, for _May_, it probably was.

If she could've sweatdropped like Anime characters did, Misty would have done it in this moment. She couldn't help but sigh at May's clumsiness. It wasn't the first time something like this happened and Misty always wondered how May managed it not to get any serious injuries.  
It was a _miracle_.

But before Misty was able to tease May because of her mishap, Drew suddenly burst out laughing. He hadn't said anything since he'd entered- which was very unusual for him – but what no one knew was: he only did it to prevent himself from laughing. _Great success._

* * *

_**May's POV:**_

_Oh, I should've known it!_

"Could you _please_ stop laughing, jerk?!" I grunted angrily at Drew.

He glanced at me, still giggling and wiped a tear out of his eye. "Sorry, but you look pretty stupid, covered all over in books." he said smugly.

"YOU'RE _SO_ FULL OF IT!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, almost as loud as Misty could've done it. That damn idiot really knew how to rile me up.

Furious to the max, I took one of the books lying on the ground and threw it straight into Drew's face.

_Ha!_

"OW!" he winced and rubbed his nose gently. "What was that for?"

"You're even asking?" I screeched in a very high pitched voice. _Boy_, he was driving me nuts! He was like that ALL THE TIME. Arrogant, cocky and always laughing at me. I'd been slapping myself inwardly already the entire day for believing that he was actually nice and only pretending to be a stupid idiot. As you see, I had been absolutely wrong.

And there it was again! This innocent look that says: 'I didn't do anything wrong!'

_Oh yes, you did!_

"ANDREW HAYDEN, LEAVE THIS ROOM IMMEDIATELY! FOR GOD'S SAKE!!" I shouted, throwing another book at him, which he professionally dodged. _Too bad._

"No need for violence, I'm leaving already." he snickered amusedly and _finally_ left my room.

I sighed, forcing myself to let go of my anger and turned at Misty again, who'd been strangely quiet. _Until now._

With a wide, cat-like grin she said, "So that's Drew, huh?"

"Is _that_ all you have to say?" I asked unbelievingly. How could she just ignore that argument and his obvious jerk-ness? Did his looks blur her mind or something?

Highly disappointed in my best friend, I began to pick up all the books, which were scattered on the floor.

"Why, did I say something wrong?", she asked back, confusedly staring at me.

"Stop looking like that and help me", I demanded with a scowl.

"Hey, I really did say something wrong, didn't I?" she repeated and bent down to start collecting books from the ground, as well.

"You're seriously asking that? Didn't you witness what just happened?" I almost snorted in disbelief and put the books in a large white shelf.

"Yes, I did. So? What's the deal?" Misty shot me an odd look and loaded her books in the same shelf as I did.

"The deal is, that Drew is a jerk and a total idiot and to me it sounds like you're in love with him or something." I explained with a '_duh'_ expression on my face.

"I AM NOT!" Misty quickly yelled. "And why is he a jerk? I thought you told me yesterday, that he actually could be very nice."

"Well, I was wrong. Didn't you see it? He's the devil himself." I replied, as I sat down on my bed.

Misty placed herself in front of me; disbelief written all over her face. Or maybe she just didn't want to believe it. "He can't be that bad!"

"Oh, you have NO idea", I grunted back, glaring at her with the most intense scowl, I could produce. She sighed.

"I think, he's very attractive", Misty shrugged after taking her seat beside me.

"Attractive but bitter", I murmured with a slight snicker.

"C'mon, May! Do you really dislike him so much?" Misty asked. It somehow seemed like she was expecting me to say something like "No, actually I like him very much, I just don't know how to say it!".  
Well, I wasn't going to.

"Are you kidding me? He takes every chance to tease me and enjoys it more like you enjoy chatting with Ash." I answered, shaking my head. Her behavior sort of reminded me of…

"But you definitely told me yesterday that he tried to console you when you cried _and_ he was nice to Max." she said with a determined look. "I think you should-"

"Wait", I cut her off. "_Wait!_ Are you trying to get me and Drew dating or something?"

"What? No, I, uh… just thought you shouldn't judge over him one day after you met him." she stammered fidgety. A sweat drop was running down her forehead.

_God, is she a bad liar! It's not even funny!_

"Misty, we both know, you're lying." I smirked confidentially and rolled my eyes.

Slightly turning red, she looked down at her feet, probably absolutely ashamed by the fact that she was found out. "And what's so bad about that?", she muttered finally, still avoiding to face me directly.

"Misty! I'm really grateful, because I know, you just want to help me, but…I don't think this is the right way! I don't want to be Drew's girlfriend and I guess, he doesn't want to be my boyfriend, either." I smiled, as she slowly lifted her head.

"But - you two would be perfect together!" she whispered with a pleading look on her face.

_No._

"Misty…", I started and my eyes began to widen.

_Oh, hell no._

"Why not try to ask him out?" she asked. Her pleading look was apparently changing into that of a puppy: Cute, wobbly and irresistible.

"Ugh, _fine_.", I groaned after a short thinking pause and let myself fall back down onto my soft, comfortable bed.  
Misty got me with that stupid puppy face of hers. She got me and she freaking knew it. Maybe she had even planned it from the very beginning of our conversation. She _was_ evil enough for it.

"Yay!" _Yay_, at least _she_ was happy, while I was already regretting my answer.

_How_ the gosh darned heck was I going to ask Drew out? The possibility that he would say yes was _really_ low, on the other hand the possibility that he would laugh his ass off instead was frighteningly high. Asking _Drew_ out for a date would be perhaps the most humiliating, shameful and mortifying thing I'd ever experience. I might as well just commit suicide. That'd be probably even better.

_I'm in love with Ash! Then why am I here and about to ask DREW out?_

But there was no escape. Now that I had agreed Misty wouldn't be going to stop bugging me until I'd do it. I knew her. With her watching, there was absolutely no escape.

"How about you try it right now?" Misty squealed in excitement. It were exactly these words, which snapped me back to reality. My jaw dropped open. _WHAT?_

"I don't think-", I began, but she cut me off.

"May!!" she yelled. "You know the saying 'Now or never', don't you? It's YOUR chance!"

"Misty, we live in the same house. It's not like he could run away or something. Besides, maybe he already has a girlfriend.", I said, hoping that she would finally stop being so ridiculously spontaneous. _Seriously_, it was scary.

"Girlfriend", Misty whispered, as if she never even considered Drew already having one.

_Ha!_

After a few minutes of silence, Misty finally stopped to look like the apocalypse was about to come and (to my fear) smiled – _no_, SMIRKED. My brain immediately set off alert. What had she planned out _now?_

"If he really has one, we're going to make her wish, she was dead. I will not allow anyone else as Drew Hayden's girlfriend." **WHAT?**

_Help! She's gone insane! Someone's got to stop her!!_

"Who-who's 'we'?" I stuttered with goose bumps on my arms and tried desperately not to sound hysterical.

Laughing evilly, she shook her head. "You and me, of course. Together it will be a piece of cake to make him fall in love with you."

I didn't know what to answer after that. _Hell_, I didn't even know what to think. I just couldn't believe it.

_Since when is it about love?_ _I thought it's just about ONE stupid date._

I took a deep breath to calm myself down. Somehow I had to make this stop. Asking Drew for a date was already horrible enough, but making him fall in love with me went way too far.  
It was outrageous! I did not want to become Andrew Hayden's girlfriend and I would never let it happen.

_That's it!_  
Suddenly the perfect idea popped up in my head.  
I just had to be the worst date he ever had and everything would turn out fine.

_Wait!_

_What?_

_This sounds like it's certain that he agrees. I thought it was clear that he'd say no!?_

_C'mon, that would be sooo boring._

"…May! May!! MAY MAPLE!!" Misty bawled, waving with her hands in front of my face, while I was wondering how she was able to make her voice so _loud_. Was she trying to destroy my eardrums?

"Could you please quit screaming _bloody_ murder? If you continue like that, the whole neighborhood will be here in a few minutes." I frowned and gently stroked my overstrained ears. Misty's cheeks tinted crimson and she murmured something that sounded like an apology.

"Everything alright?!" a boy-ish voice shouted, coming from the corridor.

_Speaking of the devil._

With heavy steps and a worried look, Drew arrived at the door-frame.  
"I heard Misty scream", he panted, eying Misty and me like he was trying to make sure none of us was injured or dead.

"Don't worry, we're fine", I sighed and shot my best friend an angry look that said 'That's what I meant'.

"Sorry", she said embarrassed.

"It's fine, as long as you two are okay", he smiled. It was one of those smiles, which he was able to control every girl with – _but me_. I would never fall for someone so arrogant and stupid.  
Misty blushed and smiled back. _See what I mean?_

"We're okay, so…can you…like go away now?" I scowled and wished he'd just disappear completely, so all my current problems would vanish.

"Is it really okay – I mean, are you _sure_ the two of you are alright? You might hit your head again like today morning when you ran against theopen door of the fridge." he asked, grinning smugly.

"Are you _sure_ you don't want to leave? You might hurt your head again like before when a book hit your face." I countered. Okay, I admit, it wasn't one of my best remarks, but I was absolutely NOT in the mood for this. The whole 'Ask-him-out' thing already claimed all my concentration and nerves.

"That wouldn't have happened, if a certain someone hadn't thrown it at me." Drew said, still smirking cockily as ever.

"Go away", I groaned and rubbed my eyes gently. Didn't he know when it was best to shut up and leave?

* * *

_**Drew's POV:**_

Drew was surprised by what May had just said. Or more at _the way_ she said it. Normally she'd shout and insult him now – but instead of that she just sat on her bed and told him to leave. What happened? Maybe it was about something that Misty said or…

"May!!" Misty gritted through her teeth. "This is _the_ chance! ASK HIM!"  
May winced and glared at her furiously.

_What the heck is going on?_

"Are you crazy?! Not now!!" May hissed.

"Um, I _really_ don't want to interrupt you but do you mind telling me what is going on between you two?" he asked hesitantly, as the two girls turned at him – one was grinning mischievously, the other looked like she was about to die.

"I guess, it's time for me to leave", Misty said, winking optimistically at May, who glanced at her best friend in despair.

"See you guys later!"

"MISTY!!"

With a silent 'clack' the door shut itself and awkward silence spread out over the two teenagers, who were left behind.

Drew scratched the back of his head. "What was that all about?" he asked and still felt very confused.

"Uh" was everything May said and it did not really help Drew to get the situation.

"Well?" he tried again.

"It's just…would you ever consider maybe, err, going out with me…on a date?" May stammered, as her cheeks changed into bright red.

After those words Drew was imprisoned by astonishment. Did his step sister –who, he thought, hated him- just ask him out for a date? That was definitely one of the weirdest things he ever saw. And strangely, it actually didn't bother him. He did not feel the urge to puke and run away he usually felt when a girl asked him out.  
Another thing that was entirely different with May.

"Are you asking me out?" Drew tried summarizing the situation to make sure his ears worked properly and he had not misunderstood anything.

"Just as friends, of course!" she added quickly and turned away from him even quicker.

"Of course", he muttered with a slight grin – he couldn't help but tease her, it was just _too_ much fun.

May flinched – just as expected – and looked at him with the widest smile – not as expected. Why was she smiling? She was supposed to be angry at his remark.

"Does that mean, you're going to say no?" she asked happily, just like she was praying for it.  
Now Drew was even more confused than before. When someone asked someone else out for a date, wouldn't he or she be hoping for a _yes?_  
Drew nodded to himself as a response. But then why was she looking like she would kill for the opposite?!

"That wasn't what I meant. It actually sounds kind of fun." he said as casually as he could and waited for May's reaction. She looked _sad._

_What the hell is the deal with this girl?!_

"Oh really? Great", she said but her face showed that she was lying.

"Um, where do you want to go?" Drew asked, a little concerned about her now. Why was she acting so strange?

May looked up, surprised – as if she hadn't even thought about that.

"Don't you now?"

She blushed. _Okay, I was right._

A small moment passed, before May said finally, "How about cinema?"

_How creative._ "Sounds like a good idea. Have you any particular movie in mind?"

"To be honest: I have no idea what's airing right now. I don't go to the cinema very often." she admitted. "Do you know a good one?"

"I have to pass, as well. Well, I'm just going to search in the internet or ask a friend." he shrugged.

"That would be great!" she beamed, which made his heart skip a beat. When she was smiling  
like that she was actually sort of cute…  
Drew stopped these outrageous thoughts immediately.  
Why was he reacting like that to her? And why the heck did he feel so different with her than with other girls?

_This is absolutely __**not**__ normal! _

_Not to mention highly unmanly._

While all kinds of thoughts were whirling in Drew's head, May wondered about something else.

"Should we go eat something after that?" she asked with an uncertain expression.

Drew snapped back to reality. "Sounds awesome", he replied.

"Oh, by the way", she began pensively. "When do you have time?"

"On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have football training", Drew explained, becoming thoughtful, as well. Monday was a bad day, just because it was _Monday_ – also he still had to make preparations for the date, which meant: He needed time. His last date was already four months ago and it hadn't gone really well. The girl he was out with of the annoying type and the mere reason why he was even on that date was a lost bet – which the girl of course did not know of. Short: It had been a disaster. Just like every other date he had with a girl. His luck in finding decent girls was apparently rather little – until now. May definitely did not belong to that list and his feeling told him that it was worth giving her a chance.

"Hello? Drew? Are you in there?!" May called and gave him a suspicious look.

_Okay, enough of this; back to topic._

Drew nodded to show her that he was still present and directed his thoughts back to her question. "Wednesday is a good day", he finally decided.

"Yeah, I'm free on that day, too." May said in agreement. "Since we don't know what movie we're going to see, let's just leave the time behind for now."

"Sure", Drew answered and deep inside, excitement grew in him. The more he thought about going out with his step sister, the more he realized that he was rarely getting _this_ excited and that he was actually really looking forward to it - it was hard to admit though.

Recognizing, that he lost himself in his thoughts _again_, Drew suddenly looked up and saw a fidgety May, who was glancing at him nervously. Just watching her made him feel insecure and awkward. He made the decision that he had to break the silence.

"I think, uh, I should go now. See you…at dinner" was all he managed to say, almost panting from the will power he'd needed to bring out that plain and rather uncreative phrase.

Uncoordinatedly, but still fast he rushed out of May's bedroom, not even noticing that Misty had been eavesdropping in front of the door and was now lying on the floor with a huge, red bump on her forehead. Obviously the door hit her head.

* * *

_**Misty's POV:**_

"Owww", she whined and rubbed the place, where the wood had hit her skull. Unsteadily, she stood up and entered the room, where May was staring at the door, that Drew had left through.

"My, oh my, he said yes", Misty whistled mischievously.

May lifted her head to look at her friend directly. "You heard everything." It was a conclusion, not a question.

"Sorry, but I just couldn't resist!" Misty said and sticked out her tongue.

"It's okay, I need your help anyway", May sighed and flopped onto her bed.

"Help? You're asking _me_ for help? What is it?" Misty squealed in delight of the fact that her best friend actually needed her help for once.

"You have to tell me what boys hate."

* * *

**_Preview of chapter 4:_**

"_Yeah_, sure. MAN, you need to grow up!" Drew scowled, but feared that he never would.

"Did you call me just to tell me_ THAT_?"

**A/N:**

**God, this monster was so hard to write. DX The end may look kind of rushed and I apologize for that. I just wanted to update again since I know, you were all waiting for it! ;D  
I'm really sorry, it took so long, guys. But school has started for me and my birthday was on Friday! I think those are really good excuses. XD**

**Anyway, I just hope you enjoyed reading the new chapter and **_**REVIEW**_**. Pwiiiez. I also thank all of you, who have reviewed recently! X3 You made me feel wanted and loved, that's why I want to write the next chapter(s) fast, so we can finally get to their date and you all get the CS fluff, you've been waiting for. Or maybe not? :****P  
-Judy xoxo**

**PS: Is anyone of you interested in BEATAing my stories? :3**


	4. Drew's Bad Day

**_A/N:_ Welcome to the wonderful world of fillers! :D -shot by readers-**

**Chapter 4: Drew's (not so?) bad day**

_**May's POV:**_

"You have to tell me what boys hate."

"It's for the date, isn't it? Awww, that's _so_ cute!" Misty squealed in delight of my 'sweetness' and ruffled my hair.

I couldn't help but chuckle at her naivety. Didn't she know that there was just no way that I'd give in to dating Drew and I just wanted to know what boys hated the most, so I would never have to go on a date with him ever again?

"Yeah, totally cute…so would you _please_ help me now?" I asked, trying not to sound too annoyed - and once again I failed just like two days ago, when I was facing Mom.

She patted my shoulder with an understanding expression on her face. "Of course, don't worry", she smiled. All I could do, was wondering what her twisted mind had misinterpreted now.

"Okay let's start." she suggested and took a deep breath as preparation for her upcoming rant. "You should be friendly, of course, and show him your girl-ish and vulnerable side, so he feels like a real man around you. But at the same time you shouldn't be too far away from your real self – after all, YOU are the reason for him wanting to go out with you. _Understood?"_

Quite stupified, I glanced at my best friend. According to what just came out of her mouth, I just had to behave _normally_. But that couldn't be enough to ruin a date, could it? Somehow I really expected more. "This sounds pretty clichéd, if you ask me." I commented with one of my eyebrows raised.

"Well, no-one asked you! YOU were the one, who wanted ME to help you!" she grunted furiously, apparently forgetting that she actually did ask me.

_Can't she just once stop shouting like that? It's seriously getting on my nerves._

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. _Please_ go on." I groaned just to shut her up and spent another short moment, thinking _seriously_ about what she just 'taught' me. And somehow it made me feel guilty – well, not really guilty, just somewhat bad. Because if she was right, then it meant that Drew had been honest when he agreed on going on a date with me; he must had thought that I was worth to date him, while I was trying to destroy it all. Perhaps it was the best, if I just told him the truth and leave the whole act. If I explained everything to him and told him that I was actually in love with someone else – maybe he would understand.  
Or also maybe not.  
Or maybe he just said yes out of a whim. But then...

_God, May! Stop that!_

And with that, I decided to just follow through the plan like before.

"Well, I wasn't on that many dates myself, so... I actually don't know much more than this." Misty muttered quietly, making it hard for me to understand her. Unfortunately enough for her, I did after all– and what I heard made me really angry.

"I thought you were the great expert and now _that_? What is this, big mouth but nothing behind it?!" I yelled, forcing myself not to kill my best friend.

"I already said, I'm sorry!" she spat, her voice was wobbling and for a moment I thought she was going to cry.

_Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!_

"You're not crying, are you?" I shrieked more astonished and shocked than actually concerned.

"I'm not", she sniffed and turned her head away from me.

_Wonderful, that's just what I needed. Actually I should be the one to cry._

_**Why**__ is she so ridiculously moody anyways?!_

"PLEASE stop crying!" I pleaded, as I reluctantly stroked her shaking back to make her stop sobbing for nothing. This was so unnecessaryly theatrical - not to mention absolutely pointless.

"Under one condition", she said finally, but still pretending to sulk.  
I wasn't sure if it was a sensible decision to just agree and trust her- but God knows why - I did it anyway and a wide grin arose on her llips.

_This is not good._

"YAY! That means we're going shopping tommorrow!" she exclaimed happily as ever without even a trace of tears on her face.

_I've been tricked. I should've known it._

_Why did you even say yes?_

_I guess, I'm just __**too**__ nice..._

"And why is that?" I asked in bewilderment, while wondering if I really wanted to know.

"You need a dress for the date, _duh_!" she replied, as if anyone but me would've known the answer. Perhaps that even was the case, but I wasn't _anyone_, also I disliked dresses - you have to know that I had a strict anti-dress, anti-ruffles, anti-ribbons and an anti-pink policy- and buying them. Nevertheless, Misty often forced Ash and me to tag along during her shopping tours since she apparently loved all kinds of pretty and _girly_ clothing. Sometimes I really wondered, if her second name was 'Shopaholic'.

"Do I really have to?" Whining, I already foresaw that the coming Monday afternoon was going to be my own personal hell.

"Yes and that's final" The way she glared at me told me that she would not change her mind and would tie me up and _drag_ me to come with her shopping if she had to. "I will come over after school."

"Yes, Ma'am", I sighed, tired of arguing - I had no chance of winning anyway. Against Misty no-one had one. She would either trick you or scare you half to death with her blind rage to get you doing what she wanted. It was just not fair, no matter how you looked at it.

* * *

_**Drew's POV:**_

After Drew had rushed out of May's room and locked himself into his, he had just sat on the floor with a meditation-like position and thought about what just happened. He felt weird. The whole situation was weird. Why did she ask him for a date? He didn't know. But that wasn't even the weirdest thing. The weirdest thing was that he actually accepted, what didn't only surprise May but also himself. He hadn't been prepared for that - in fact - he hadn't been prepared for anything today. And that bugged him. Usually, he was prepared for everything and never changed his expression, no matter what happened.  
He _really_ needed to get back his old, prepared, confident self.

Drew decided that at first he should write down what he was sure of to organize his confusedly around flying thoughts.

_1. May is different than other girls._

_2. It's fun to tease her._

_3. She asked me out on a date._

_4. She was expecting a __**no**__._

_5. I said yes. _

_6. We're going to watch a movie and eat afterwards._

_7. It's going to be on Wednesday._

_8. I have no idea how I am supposed to behave in front of her now that she asked me._

_9. May is cute when she smiles. _(**_A/N:_**That was supposed to be scrached.)

_9. I did not have a date since four months._

_10. I need help for this date or I'm going to screw up._

_11. Misty has a very loud and high pitched voice when she screams._

_12. I am not unhappy about this development. (Misty and my brain not included)_

After re-reading the list, he came to the conclusion that he was still as clueless about what to do as before. His confidence did not come beack, either.

Angrily Drew stared at the piece of paper in front of him.

_Okay, __**maybe**__ I should try something else._

Drew sighed, knowing the answer already. He needed someone, who actually knew something about girls and how to treat them. He also knew who that special someone was and exactly that person was causing Drew a slight headache and the reason for his sigh.  
He needed the most arrogant (even more than Drew himself), girl-experieced male on this planet.  
_Gary Oak._

Gary was a classmate of Drew's and his friend. He was almost as good looking as Drew and had almost as many fangirls as him. _Almost_.  
When they'd first met, Gary was very pissed about that fact and tried (almost desperately) to overcome Drew in being the most popular and having the greatest amount of fangirls. And even though Drew wasn't even interested in his popularity, Gary had failed miserably. Soon after Gary had accepted his defeat, their 'rivalry' ended and they became quite good friends - maybe even best friends.

And now he was Drew's only hope, because although Drew got more attention, he was nowhere near as experienced as Gary, who actually enjoyed being loved by everyone.

Drew let out a groan. He felt pathetic for needing advice but began to dial his best friend's number anyway.

_Toooot. Toot._

"Oak residence, who is it?" the raspy voice of an old man asked. Drew recognized it immediately - it belonged to Gary's grandfather Samuel Oak. He was an animal expert and famous for his discoveries and books he'd written and was also Gary's legal guardian since his parents (who apparently had been researchers, as well) had died ten years ago in some kind of laboratory accident. They had experimented with dangerous chemicals and accidentally they got mixed together, so the whole building exploded. Not only Gary's parents had died but also a few assitants.

"Hello, Mr Oak, here's Drew. Is Gary at home?" Drew said and directed his thouhgts back to the subject.

"You're lucky, he just came back from visiting a 'friend'."  
Drew sighed. _Why am I not surprised?_  
What Mr Oak called 'friend', was most likely one of Gary's girlfriends, who weren't exactly girlfriends, either since he dated a girl (at the most) for one week and then dumped her to move on to the next one. For him it was the most normal thing in the world and he even described it as 'his only way to show every woman on the planet that he loved them'.

"I'll go get him for you", Mr Oak announced and Drew was able to hear several rustling noises coming out of the receiver.

"Hey, man! What's up?" Gary greeted after a few seconds of waiting. According to his tone he seemed to be in a good mood.

"Why do you sound so happy?" Drew asked sceptically. Usually, it was never a good thing when Gary was in good spririts - it always ended in toruble.

"Ah, it's nothing; I just broke up with Emily today!" Gary answered, almost singing the words.

Even though this answer was typical Gary, Drew still couldn't believe it.

_He never fails to amaze me._ "God, Gary, how long have you been together? Four days? This is a new record!" Drew grumbled at his friend.

"Why, thank you" Gary warbled with a smug undertone. "But seriously though, she was absolutely annoying! I couldn't take it anymore."

"_Yeah_, sure. MAN, you need to grow up!" Drew scowled, but feared that he never would.

"Did you call me just to tell me_ THAT_?"

"I have obviously better things to do. ... The thing is..." Drew hesitated. Was it really safe doing this? Well, now that he already started, he might as well do it. "I need your advice as a playboy and dating expert." It costed him all his pride and will power to bring out those words.

"Whoa, who are you and where is the real Drew?" Gary gasped, pretending to be highly shocked. He was such a drama-queen.

"Stop fooling around, _idiot_. I'm serious." Drew grunted to imply that joking time was over.

"Wow, you seriously need my help? That has to be the most astonishing moment of history!!" Gary exclaimed, still acting like he was extremely shocked.

Drew growled.

"Okay, okay. I'll stop!"

_It's about time._

"So - since you said you need my help as a dating expert, I guess it's about a girl, am I correct?" Gary concluded in a very 'business-like' way.

"Congratulations, genius", Drew sighed and rolled his eyes. Sarcasm was the only way to reduce the humiliation.

Having a big ego wasn't really advantageous.

"So, who's the lucky girl?" Drew could_ feel _Gary's nosiness. But who could blame him? That Drew actually showed interest in a girl for once meant that it had to be a special one - a kind of girl you wouldn't find twice on earth.

"Do you remember how I told you about Dad getting married soon?"

"Yeah, _so_?" Gary didn't really get what_ that _had to do with anything.

"I also said that his girlfriend has a son and a _daughter_, right?" Drew hoped that this hint would do the trick.

"_So_, what does-...you don't mean?" Gary merely whispered.

"Yup, her name's May."

"Wow, wow, _**wow**_. I'm impressed, Drew. Your step sister?" Gary grinned mischievously and Drew wondered if he just heard a slight trace of envy in his voice.

"You make it sound like some dirty game" Drew growled in disgust at his own friend.

"What would _you_ call it?"

"A date" Drew said simply - what else should it be?

"That means you already asked her out, doesn't it?! Then where's the problem?"

"I did not ask her out"

"Huh?"

"_She _did"

Then something very rare happened. For a few seconds Gary didn't say anything.

But that very pleasant moment (how Drew found it) ended as fast as it had come.  
"Well, then I really don't get what you need my help for." he stated confusedly.

"I don't know what to do." Drew admitted. "It's totally weird. Normally, I don't feel that way about a girl. I'm really scared that I'm going to screw up."

_Goodbye, my manly-ness! _

"You're kidding me, right?" Gary snorted.

"How often do I have to tell you? I am serious" Drew let out a groan, hoping that now _even_ Gary would understand.

Gary burst out in laughter, as Drew felt the strong urge to punch him - yet, he had to realize that they were talking on the phone. It was _such _a pity.

"SHUT UP OR I'M GOING TO POP YOU!" Drew bawled on top of his lungs and panted heavily.

"But Drew, I'm your friend! What did I do to deserve such treatment?" Gary shrieked quite girl-ish-ly to rile Drew up even more.

"Stop it, Gary. _**Right. Now.**_"Drew hissed, rapidly losing his temper.

_Gary better shut his damn mouth, before I pay him a little visit and __**make**__ it shut._

"God, don't you have at least a little humor?"

"Humor is overrated", Drew blurt.

"I get it, I get it. I will help you, but not on the phone. I will come over tommorow and we're going to talk everything through.", Gary said, suddenly seeming rather serious.

"Why do i have the feeling you just want to meet May?" Trusting Gary Oak blindly was a mistake Drew was not going to make.

"I do want to meet her, but that has a specific reason. If you want me to help you then I have to know what kind of girl she is." Gary explained, sounding shockingly sensible.

"That sounds..._plausible_", Drew murmured reluctantly.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to take away your girl!" Gary soothed, laughing (as a special exeption not in a mocking tone).

"She is** NOT **my girl!" Drew screeched in a very high pitched voice.

"Of course not", Gary giggled once again very girl-ish-ly. "See you tommorow~!"

"Don't you _dare_ hang up on me now, Oak!!"

But it was too late. He had hung up.

Growling, Drew threw the phone on his bed and began to violently kick the wall.

_That stupid, little, goddamn, dumb-_

**Knock. Knock.**

_Argh, what NOW?_

Drew turned away from the wall, strode with large, heavy steps towards the door and opened it. When he saw _who_ stood in front of the door, he flinched and immediately staggered backwards. It was no-one other than May.

_This day keeps getting better and better._

He felt flustered, as his cheeks turned into crimson red. Exactly this was the reason for fleeing out of her room and avoiding her ever since they last spoke. Oh, how he longed for his old, cocky self.

"Would you please tell me what that wall did to you?" she asked, seemingly at the end of her tether.

"What-what do you mean?"

_Oh. My. God. I did __**not**__ just stutter._

_You did._

_Drew Hayden does NOT stutter around a girl! He __**NEVER **__does!!_

Panic arose in him. Why was he behaving so awkward and _brainless_ in front of her? That was not like him at all! He was supposed to be stoic, cool and confident.  
But to very much to his misery - right now, he was none of those things.

"You keep kicking that wall like crazy and I'm just wondering what it did to you to deserve that." she answered abruptly.

"Uh, well - sorry. I was just sort of pissed" _**Seriously **__Drew, are we utterly stupid today?_

"Could you please vent it on something else that _doesn't_ make such a noise?"

"Uh, sure?" It came out more like a question and he hated himself for it.  
Why was he so intimidated by her appearance? And why was he so goddamned nervous?

_I am _not_ nervous._

"Thank you", she stated firmly.

_I'm not nervous._

May groaned and shook her head.

_No, I'm definitely not nervous._

Now she also started to kick the wall, but not as violently as him.

"Um, what are you doing there?" Drew asked in a quiet voice.

_I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous._

May stopped and lifted her head.

_I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous._

"Sorry", she sighed and gently stroked her temples.

_I'm not nervous. I'm not nervous. I am __**not**__ nervous._

"It's just that I'm a little stressed out. I didn't mean to yell at you."

_**STOP BEING NERVOUS, YOU BIG COWARD!!!**_

"It's okay, really."

"Thank you", she said again. "Maybe you're not the jerk I thought you were."

He was tongue-tied.

Slightly chuckling, May strolled out of his room and closed the door to leave a very dumbstruck Drew behind.

What did just happen? He didn't know.  
There were only two things he was sure of: First, he needed to regain his confidence or he would stay like _this_ forever - and being absolutely insecure around girls definitely did not match his personality.  
Secondly, he had made her smile.

Perhaps today hadn't sucked so bad after all.

* * *

_**Preview of chapter 5:**_ No preview again, sorry...

* * *

_**A/N: **_**Okay now, here's the new chappie! I hope, everyone liked the outcome! :)**

**Personally, I think it could've been better due to the fact that this was sort of a filler chapter. =/ But every book needs a back story and preparation for a big event. Especially, when it's as big as a date between Drew and May! ;D Please don't hate me. T^T At least at the end was a little fluff!**

**However, I do hope, you're content with me updating earlier this time. With a little help from above I will be able to keep this up! X'D**

**Um, btw there a few things I would like to ask/announce. First is that I have put the foreword of my AAML fic on my profile page and it would be terribly sweet of you, if you read it! Second, when does the summer break in the U.S.A. start and end? Could someone please tell me? . Third, I think, I need a BETA. Is there anybody out there, who would take that job? :3 -makes cute, wobbly puppy eyes, nobody can resist-**

* * *

**Btw, did you know - I eat **_**REVIEWS**_** for a living!**

_**Well some of you seem to know since you reviewed! Thank you so much!! :D That's why I decided to answer your reviews right here and now!! **_

**Arysd - Wow, first I want to thank you for reviewing all three hapters! If I could, I would give you a special, extra big but I can't bake. ): I'm happy that you liked the new chappie so much!! I hope, you will like this one, as well. -sweatdrops- It was also fun to write Misty XD And I'm really glad that someone actually noticed that under that fanatic romantic freak-ish side is a very concerned friend.  
****Well, May can't be excited, she's still in love with Ash. XD (Don't worry, that _will_ change...I don't know how long it will take though... ^^;; -shot by readers once again-) **

**hitsugaya16 - You like Hitsugaya, don't you? :3 (totally pintless) Aaaah, I adore him! :D ...I just wanted to say that.  
****Anywho, thanks for reviewing. :) Haha, and thank you for complimenting the last chapter, hopefully you will like this one, too. ^_^  
****And see? I updated!! XD**

**CarpeDiemEveryday - I read a story from you. I'm sure of that. I don't know what it was called though. ^^;; I only remembered that I liked it. XDDD Ahem, on to the point. YAYZ, I'm back and apologize for updating the last chapter so late! D: Hehe, we will see how the date goes... I hope, it won't be a disppointment... . -sweatdrops- I can only say one thing... humor and a lot of torture will be included - I'm just not saying for who. XD I'll let you guess.  
****She should, shouldn't she? :P**

**RioT-6296-xD - Thank you for reviewing again! :D -gives you invisible, non-existing cookies- Try them, they're delicious! 8D Thank you so much!! I hope, I will be able to satisfy you with this chappie, too. :) Haha, the date... It's going to be interesting. ^^**

**silver-hedgehog - Thanks for reviewing again!! X3 -non-existing, virtual cookies for you, as well-  
-sings with you- XD I hope, you will enjoy the date, when it comes. :) Amd don't worry, she's just attracted to his looks, nothing serious. Or maybe not? -mwahahahaha- Ahem, we will see what the future brings. ^^;  
****Nice to see a review X'D**

**See you all at the next update!**

**Love,  
****Judy :]]**

* * *


	5. The Apocalypse? Part 1

_**A/N:**_ Remember how I said I would update quicker? Well…I kinda lied… –dodges flying objects thrown by CS fans- FORGIVE MEH! TT^TT

_**Warning:**_ If you have not heard/read the word 'fuck' before...well, then you have now. And beware the fluffyness… and –looks through the chapter- the fillerness…STOP THROWING THINGS AT ME! DX

_**Disclaimer:**_ If you don't like Pokémon then don't sue me, I do NOT own it

* * *

**The apocalypse? - Part 1**

_**May's POV:**_

"Maybe you're not the jerk I thought you were?!" I screeched to myself and stared at my feet, as my eyes opened widely to their maximum extend. Not because I just realized how utter ugly they were (By the way, they're not) - but because I didn't see them. The only thing I saw was the face of a certain grass haired boy. In a matter of seconds, my gaze jerked in another direction - without real success, since he seemed to be everywhere. Angry at that fact and at myself, I threw myself on my bed and drowned my head in a pile of pillows to scream into it as loud as I could. The way he behaved was driving me absolutely crazy; there was no other way than screaming to handle it.

_First he's a jerk, then he's nice then he's a jerk again and now he's __**nice**__ again!_

_I thought only women have mood swings_

How was I supposed to act in front of him, when nobody knew how he would react?

I shook my head violently, as I once again tried to understand the weird and twisted brain that belonged to my step brother and once again failed.  
I sighed and unconsciously lifted my head to slam my head against the wall. (_**A/N:**_God, the poor wall! What did it do to you people that you can't stop yourself from hitting, kicking or slamming your heads against it?! )

_I sure am glad that it's only one date. Otherwise my head would probably explode or something..._

I groaned.

Then two hesitant knocks came from the other side of my bed room door and my little brother entered – before I could even utter an approval - as he said rather cheerfully, "Hey sis!" A pretty simple but appropriate sentence to check the situation.

"What's up?" _Go away._

He ignored my hidden 'message' and answered anyway. "Weird noises kept coming out of your room and I wanted to check if you're okay", he explained with a – for my taste – a little too sincere expression on his face. His smile was so innocent, there was no way he could have been _not_ lying. Not to mention being concerned about me and coming to look if I was alright was just scarily OOC for my little brother.

"Yeah, right", I snorted in disbelief and quickly turned back to being serious, as I narrowed my eyes to a piercing glare. "What do you _really_ want?"

"Alright, you got me!" he admitted faster than I expected. Apparently he wanted to get it over with as quick as possible and I internally thanked him for it. My temper and nerves still lacked patience and control due to all the sudden, life-changing events that had happened the past few hours. "Well, I, uh - I wanted ask if you and Drew are dating." _Okay scratch that_. I choked and nearly spilled my non-existing tea all over him.

"W-what?" I managed to cough and my brain set off alert. What did he know? And more importantly: _How_ did he know?

"Uh, well…I met Misty on the corridor before she left and she prattled on about 'a wonderful, upcoming romance you two share' and 'deep, hidden feelings'."

Okay, that explained a lot.

_Trust Misty to tell everything my goddamned little brother, no matter how many times I begged her not to._

_She is __**so**__ going to pay for that._

Lost in my plans for revenge I hadn't recognized that Max apparently had continued the conversation and seemed not very pleased about me not replying to him, since he was now shouting and gesturing to get back my attention. And apparently his waving arms did the trick and snapped me back to reality. "Sorry", I said a little embarrassed about drifting away like that. "And no, we're not dating." (To answer his first question) "I'm just going on a date with him." I only realized how weird that sounded after the words had already slipped out of my mouth.

He shot me an odd look. "That doesn't make any sense", he stated and I knew he was right, even though I didn't like to admit it. In fact, I never liked to admit being wrong about anything.

But back to topic.

I was pretty aware that my current situation and relationship with my step brother didn't make sense at all. But so was life; it never did. But what did eight-year-olds know about life?

Anyhow, explaining the whole, undeniable truth and with that also exposing my (until now) well hidden secret concerning my love interest was out of the question. I would just leave that little _detail_ behind…

"Misty sort of forced me to go on a date with Drew. I didn't really want to." Actually that wasn't even a lie. It was the truth, only without the fact added that I already had someone I was in love with. And who was dumb enough and tell his little brother everything about his/hers love life anyway?

"Uh-huh" He didn't seem too convinced, which filled me with indignation. Why did everyone question the truth so much? Misty had reacted similar when I had told her that I did not want anything from earlier mentioned meadow-haired boy. "That's what they all say", he smirked at me with a mocking look on his face. At times like these I really hated him. Just when you thought he was finished with making you angry he added another remark to rile you up even more.

"And how would _you_ know something about that kind of thing? _YOU,_ an eight-year-old!" I hissed furiously, as he turned to 'sulky mode'.

"Don't treat me like a little kid…" he pouted, his lower lip wobbling quite melodramatically. God, how I hated him for it.

I let out deep groan of annoyance. "How am I supposed to treat you then? You're eight years old, as far as I know that still counts as being a little kid."

"But I do know something about love!" he shouted, his lip no longer wobbling, because of being 'hurt', but being upset and feeling insulted in his 'manly' pride. It almost looked like his whole behaviour was trying to prove the exact opposite of what he just said. _Stupid boy._

'_Good acting skills' aren't really the words of choice…_

"_You act like a little kid_", I sneered and glanced at him scoffingly. Being an asshole sure had its benefits. Such as my little brother growling furiously and getting up to shoot me one last glare before stomping out of my room. My comment seemed to have worked its magic – he was finally gone, thus I was safe from his stupid, nosy questions, of which answers didn't concern him anyway.

I sighed in relief, while I wondered why people were suddenly so interested in my love life. I had liked it when everyone had been busy with merely themselves. Hiding my feelings had been a lot easier back then. But OF COURSE, Mom just had to find herself a new man, so she could turn my peaceful, ordered life into miserable and absolutely messed up. I bet she thought that all the changes were _improvements_.

Okay, maybe my life hadn't been _that_ peaceful – for example Max or school stressed me out a lot at times. _Which reminds me…_

I flinched up, as fear found its way through my body. I still had to do my Math homework. _Ugh._

Reluctantly my eyes shifted in the direction of my alarm clock. 6:23pm. I growled, already moving my legs to stand up and go to my messenger bag, when a familiar grass haired boy stuck his head in between the gap of the door and door frame. "Dinner's ready", he stated firmly, a lot less nervous and stuttering than at our last talk only half an hour ago. Relief spread in me, making me relax my muscles a little, which had tightened as soon as I had seen his face. I nodded and decided to screw homework (for now) and just eat instead.

Normality was back – maybe the apocalypse wasn't as close as I'd thought.

Little did I know that it was just hiding behind my back.

* * *

The next morning was one of those clichéd, overly great mornings I just couldn't help but hate. Birds sang their daily changing tunes and the sun shone brightly, as a smooth breeze brushed past the leaves and branches of the maple trees in front of our old, beautiful house. Everything just seemed to scream that it was going to be the perfect summer day and anyone would have been happy about it. Anyone but me. Well, to say mildly I wasn't very fond of high temperatures and ever burning sun. Sure, sunshine was usually nice and in summer you could do all sorts of fun things outside, but no matter how I or my friends/mother tried to bring me to like it, I just couldn't. The most plausible reason for that was probably that my body gets all weak and dizzy, when I'm under the sun for too long. I even fainted once. But I can't help it, so I just try to avoid the sun as good as possible._ Lame, I know._ (1)

Frowning, I jerked up from my sleep and glared intensely at my alarm clock, which ringed innocently and rather loud to itself. Furiously, I took the stupid machine from my beside table and, with quite a force, threw it against the wall. (_**A/N:**_Rescue the walls in this house from being hated!!_)_

_Good._

Still half asleep, I got up and staggered towards my walk-in closet to pick something to wear. It didn't really matter though; some pants and a top would do.

After washing and clothing myself, I decided that a little fresh morning air might lighten up my mood a bit and opened the old, creaking window just to slam it shut immediately and pant in surprise. _Why is it so hot?!_

Slightly stumbling, I rushed downstairs, the fear probably visible in my eyes. "MOM!" I screeched (okay, I admit it) a little overdramatic. My mother just casually turned around and smiled, when I arrived in the kitchen. "Good morning to you too, dear."

I growled. "Why is it so hot?" It was the only thing I could formulate at the moment.

"Oh, you noticed, as well? The weather forecast said, this week will be the hottest of the year up until now."

_Oh, you've gotta be fucking kidding me._

I whined, as I shuffled towards the kitchen cupboards, grabbing the cornflakes box, a small bowl and a spoon. I let some of the cereals fall into the bowl, put the rest back and walked over to the fridge to get some milk.

**WHACK!**

Oh, how I hated that sound.

When I reopened my eyes, which I had slammed closed when the hard object had hit my face, I realized that I was lying on the floor, Drew's giggling face above me. Immediately my hand wandered to my forehead, where a stinging pain had made itself at home. My gaze narrowed at the sight of the fridge's opened door. It wasn't very difficult to analyse and comprehend the situation. _He did it again._

"S-sorry" It was a mere whisper, since he visibly tried to stop himself from bursting out in laughter.  
"Is that all you have to say?!" I yelled, all my wrath captured in it.

"Huh? Why?" he asked as if he didn't just hit my face with the refrigerator door for the second time in two days. Yes, it had been him, who caused me to 'walk into it' yesterday, as well. (2)

"'WHY'?! Are you crazy? You almost got me killed by the refrigerator door for the second time now!!" I screamed, as his lips curled up into an evil smirk, which sent a shudder down my spine. _Stop squealing_, not the good kind of shudders, but the kind you get when you're cowardly (like me) and watching 'Silent Hill'. (_**A/N:**_ Btw, that thing is _hardcore_! I already was scared for life when I only watched the preview in TV a few days ago.)

"It's your own _damn_ fault when you're such a klutz. I didn't hide myself – if you had paid attention to the people in the environment around you, you could've easily dodged it." _Oh_, how I despised him for his unfortunately sense-making logic. I really hadn't paid attention to the world outside my thoughts.

I growled, yet I noticed how the anger already started to fade away along with the painful throbbing on my face. But that didn't make it any better, because my depression, caused by the realization that today was going to be one of the hottest days of the year, reappeared.

Groaning, I got back on my feet and made my second attempt to shuffle to the object, of which door plastered my face only one minute ago, called fridge to get some milk and succeeded. I poured the white liquid into my cornflakes bowl, before I re-placed it in the fridge and positioned myself at the kitchen table to eat. I know, it isn't the most creative breakfast, but certainly one of the most delicious. I loved the crunchy sounds they made, when you chewed them. That's the reason why I wasn't very pleased when my step brother walked over to the table with his own cornflakes bowl and prevented me with his worried, apologetic and apparently gorgeous eyes, which were set on me, from doing so. After practically drowning in his wonderful, emerald colored and oddly sparkling orbs for more than a straight minute, noticing what I was doing and jerking back with a huge blush on my face, I had to admit that the concern in his look was true, what scared me even more than me staring – no, _loosing _myself in his eyes.

* * *

_**Dew's/Normal POV:**_

Drew sighed, as he once again found himself confused with the weird behavior of his step sister. Seriously, how often did that happen already since they lived together? Well, it didn't matter anyway; he obviously had more important business to do than wondering about trivial things like that. The most important right now was the strange brunette, who sat in front of him and apparently was gazing at him for already fifteen seconds now. Well, he _guessed_ that it were fifteen, he wasn't entirely sure, since he hadn't turned away from the stare, nor had he blinked throughout it. He simply didn't dare to. He feared that this was something he would probably not experience a lot in the future if even at all. To him the gaze they shared was something special, something intense and emotional to show her what he was really feeling inside. And momentarily that was quilt for knocking her out with the refigirator door.  
What _she_ felt, he couldn't exactly tell though. The two deep blue oceans that were her eyes seemed to be inhabited by doubts and confusion, just as his heart was. Yet, there was something else; it was small and almost hiding from him in the farthest depths of her azure eyes. He couldn't exactly place his finger on it, but it looked like it was something that May was trying to protect – perhaps from Drew himself even. At that thought, he began to feel rather uncomfortable with what they were doing. But he had to restrain himself, he couldn't fall that low like he had let himself yesterday during their 'kicking walls conversation' as he liked to call it. Fortunately, the problem had kind of fixed itself due to him being absolutely high after receiving a smile from May. He didn't really care about how corny that sounded. It was the undeniable truth and he had to bear with it.

But back to the actual event.

May had currently flinched away from their staring, as blood found its way to her cheeks - and like it was some kind of contagious disease, so did Drew's.

After approximately another fifteen seconds he cleared his throat quite audibly to drown out the awkward and embarrassing silence that had spread between the two teens over the whole room.

Absolutely nobody in the kitchen said a word. Not even Caroline, who had watched the entire scene and didn't dare interrupting it, nor Max, who merely giggled at the amusing sight. Peter was still showering.

Freaked out by how May refused to even glance at when on the other hand everybody else in the room burnt holes in him with their stares, Drew made the decision that eating in his room for today was best for everyone and practically _ran_ back upstairs, still flushed. Maybe the confidence regaining high from yesterday hadn't solved all of his problems. For example the flushing thing had to be stopped.

He _so_ needed Gary right now.

* * *

_**May's POV:**_

I felt the tension gradually disappear from my stiffened body, after I'd made sure Drew's footsteps had stopped and he'd shut his door. A sigh of relief escaped my mouth, before I restarted to fill it with cornflakes.

"Aaah…to be young again…" I knew I forgot something.

"What was that, Mom?" I asked, already wondering if I even wanted to hear an explanation.

"It's nothing, dear. I'm just delighted that you two get along so _well_." She answered with joy simply plastered over her face and gave her husband-to-be, who just entered the scenery, a mug with hot, steaming coffee.

"I agree", Peter merely smiled after taking a big sip of his coffee. I didn't like how they were all so - _wait._ A very unpleasant feeling crept up my spine that quickly evolved into panic. Misty _couldn't_ have…

One glance at my little brother told me all I needed, but didn't want to know. "What did that stupid redhead tell you?" I snapped, causing my mother to look up confusedly and Peter to choke on his drink.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean Misty" I swear, the way my mother smiled ever so purely just screamed that she knew exactly what or rather _who_ I was referring to and she'd just asked to annoy me even more. Although this was a Max thing to do. _Just proves that they're from the same bloodline._

"Ah, her! Yes I met her yesterday in the corridor", I scoffed at the similarity to Max' statement, "and she announced that the two of you are on the trail of love and a date is set on Wednesday. I didn't plan to tell you that though, I knew you'd be embarrassed!" _Great job_.

I scowled at my so-called family, shoved the last bit of cornflakes in my mouth and stalked out of the kitchen as fast as I could, stupid giggling and squealing, that I actually only knew from cheerleaders, to follow me upstairs.

Eager to leave this hell as quickly as possible, I slipped into a pair of brown leather sandals to grab my bag and rush to school.

But when I closed the front door of the house, I realized two things. First, it was too warm.

Second, apparently and much to my misery, Drew had been just as clever as me and already waited for something – or someone, I figured – on the staircase.

Third, and that turned this situation even more uncomfortable, I still had ten minutes left until Misty, in her family's BMW (including chauffeur), would arrive to pick me up for school. Once again I felt this awkward silence return in the air around us along with a strange mix between embarrassment and nostalgia. And once again there was this urge to break it and say something, even though I didn't even know what. Still, I tried. "Uh…why are sitting here? Are you waiting for someone?"

Drew didn't even bother turning around to face me, while he answered. "Yeah, a friend's supposed to be here for already five minutes now." According to his voice's tone, he felt at least as uncomfortable as me.

"Huh? Why so early?" This time it was real curiosity that caused me to ask.

"Because my school isn't really close by." He replied and finally looked at me. "But if I recall correct, yours isn't either, so why aren't you hurrying?"

"Misty's always picking me up. Her family's pretty rich, so everyday a chauffeur drives her to school. That way I get there actually really fast." He simply nodded and turned back to stare at the street. And just like that the mood went back to 'awkward mode'. Seriously, the tension was so thick, you could've cut through it with a knife. Luckily, just at that moment I heard a very familiar voice calling my name.  
For once I was happy that Misty was here. She ran towards me and Drew and hugged me tightly.

"Yeah, I'm happy to see you, too!" I giggled, as I pushed her back. But saying that I was laughing when I saw her expression would be a lie. It was her stupid, trademark cat grin she always wore at a shopping-tour-day. I frowned immediately.

"Stop that, will you! Today's gonna be fun!" _For you, not for me._ But I didn't even bother telling her that. Trying to change anything at this point was pointless.

Oh, the irony.

It was Misty's delighted squeal that called me back to reality and I couldn't help but snicker at the reason why. She just became a victim of Drew's ever so lovely smiles again, as he greeted her. Why didn't he treat me like that? Not that I wanted him to or anything – just to be fair.

_Not entirely true._

_Okay, I admit that he smiled at me yesterday pretty sincerely. _

I sighed and shook my head when I realized how fast that argument with myself had stopped. It just proved how worn out I was and that I shouldn't even be doing all this crap, just because my _damn_ best friend told me to. Maybe I also should stop swearing.

"Hey May, are you alright?" a friendly, deep voice asked and I lifted my head at the mentioning of my name right away.

"Don't worry, it's perfectly normal for her to be all sulky and bitchy when we're going shopping!" Misty laughed innocently, before I could even open my mouth and utter an answer. I shot her the most intense scowl I could produce, what merely gained myself some dramatic 'aws' from the redhead. Obviously annoyed by her, I turned to Drew, whose attention was set on something on the street. Instinctively, I averted my gaze in the same direction as him to a boy with spiky, hazelnut colored hair and a wide, cocky grin on his face, as he greeted Drew with a wave.

They were friends.

I didn't have that impression because Drew told me earlier that a friend would go to school with him or because the way they acted toward each other, but because he was almost as good looking as Drew. Okay, perhaps that isn't a very _logica_l explanation, but that was what I thought when I met Gary Oak the first time in person.

"Hey, man! A pretty harem you have there!" the boy whistled and gave Drew a buddy-like handshake.

"Shut up, Gary", Drew merely grunted, but returned the greeting.

"Gary?" Misty asked and shoved me to the side in order to see said boy better. "_Gary!!_"

_Great, now we clarified his name, now can me tell someone why she knows him?_

"Hey, you're Misty! The one, who always kicks little Ashy's sorry butt!"

_Ashy?_

"You're that _Misty/Gary_?!" Drew and me called in unison and flinched immediately to stare at each other. "You know him/her?!" A huge blush tinted our cheeks crimson and the other two teenagers in front of us simply giggled in amusement.

I was the first to regain my ability to speak. "Since Misty knows him and he said 'Ashy', I assume he's Ash's childhood friend Gary Oak."

"Correct", he smiled cheerfully as if I'd just won the greatest price on earth, as the confusion on Drew's face began to fade away.

He nodded pensively before he started his explanation. "It's the same for me. Gary often tells me about Ash and sometimes her name-" The abrupt creasing of his speech caused me to jerk a little before looking at him just as irritated as everyone else. "Then you're _that_ May."  
The statement hit me a little harder than it should have. That had a rather simple reason: This all was such a big coincidence, it wasn't even funny anymore. Drew and me had known each other for years without even recognizing it. Somehow that imagination seemed intensively wrong to me.

"Oh my, what a _coincidence!_" Gary exclaimed, while clapping his hands together.

_Why, thank you Captain Obvious._

"Gary, we have no time for either your stupidity", Drew suddenly shouted, averting his stare from his wrist-watch in fear to Misty and me. "Or further chatting with you two!"

Before Gary could answer anything, he was already dragged to the gate. "Good bye, ladies!" was the last thing I heard from him that day.

"We should get going, too", I said to Misty, who looked like she would've forgotten all about school, if I hadn't been there to tell her.

"Oh, right", she nodded after a short pause and with that we left for school.

* * *

School was boring and uninteresting as ever and it didn't really happen anything mentionable before lunch break. Misty, Ash and me always ate together, always at the same table – today was no exception.

"Stop eating like the end of the world is about to break down, you idiot!!" Misty shouted ever so loudly, as one of her fists landed heavily on his head. It was something she always did. People didn't even bother shooting her weird glances for her outbursts anymore. I, on the other hand, was stunned at the current change of events. No, I don't mean Misty hitting Ash, but how Ash had been able to be strong enough to not let his face getting punched into his food. And apparently Misty was, as well. "Ash I'm impressed…"

"Bwap bib bwou fink, Mway? Bwat I'b fbway bweak bforebwer? I'mwa mwan!" (What did you think, May? That I'd stay weak forever? I'm a man!) I couldn't help but chuckle at the raven haired boy's attempts to talk, while eating. And that's why I loved him (not what you think, duh) – no matter how depressed you were about something, with Ash around, there was a certain guarantee that your mood was going to lighten up in no time. That was something Drew couldn't.

_Wait. _

_Why am I bringing __**him**__ into this? _

After a short pause of irritation I shrugged it off as simply being confused about this whole dating thing.  
Right?

"What?!"

Surprised at that scream I looked up to find Ash standing at the table and staring at me with a surprised (shocked?) expression.

"Huh?" was my rather dumb response.

"Y-you have a date?"

_Misty._ One simple name and the reason for all my problems.

"Couldn't you have shut your damn mouth?" Really, why couldn't she? I hoped, I could avoid this subject around Ash, just go to the stupid date and not even bother telling him about it since it was going to be just a one time thing. But of course, Misty just had to shatter all of my hopes with her damn blabber-mouth.

"Why? It's just Ash", she smiled. Sometimes I really wondered how she could be in love with him.

"MISTY!!" both of us snapped but she just ignored it.

"May and I are going shopping for it today, wanna come along?" She tried to be casual, but a slight blush found its way to her cheeks.

"Do I look like I want to?" He did not.

"You're so boring", she sighed, grabbing an apple from her plate and rolling it in her hands.

"Anyway, why are you dating your step brother, May?" Ash asked and averted his attention back to me. I loved how he wrinkled his nose when he was confused. It was so cute, I had to think for a moment what the question was and when I remembered my mood turned to sour again.

"Didn't she tell you that she practically forced me to?"

"Typical Misty", he groaned and let himself fall back into his chair.

I sighed in response, before glancing at my watch. _Ugh._ "Hey, people", I started, looking up at my two best friends. "I have to get to sport. I can't be late today!"

"Okay, see you later!" Misty answered with a compassionate expression. She knew I hated sport like I hated spiders. Maybe even more. My body was just not built for participating in it.

"Good luck!" Ash shouted encouragingly, while I was already on my way to the first step of today's torture, knowing that this was just the beginning of what was waiting ahead.

Since the summit of it all was: The date.

* * *

_**Preview of the next chapter:**_ I don't have one. Yes, I'm lame like that…

_**A/N:**_ Okay, at first sorry for putting so many A/Ns here but I couldn't resist! I'm not doing that all the time!! DX

Now to some explanations:

(1) I know it sounds weird, but it's necessary for further plot development.

(2) Re-read chapter three, then you know what I mean.

I'm sorry for the delay, but I couldn't make it sooner. I finished this today evening (started it at Friday during school) and I really rushed it, so it can be that it also looks like that. –crosses fingers and hopes you'll like it anyways- .

I also really hope that the filler chapters will stop with this one here, but there's no guarantee! D: But I put fluff in this! FLUFF!

…

Forgive me for being a lazy, stupid bitch and _**REVIEW**_ ? If you don't, the walls will be tortured by these evil children forever, I swear! D:

Until next time

Judy :*

PS for _CarpeDiemEveryday_: I remember now which fic I read from you! It's 'The Man who can't be moved'! :D I'm looking forward to the final chapter!


	6. The Apocalypse? Part 2

_Happy Over-30-reviews Day, everyone! :D_

**_A/N:_** Err, hey guys? Sorry for not updating in so long! Life and school have been eating me lately. Although I have holidays right now. However, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter and reward me with reviews? :]]

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not-… Be honest, how many of you do actually think I'm some Japanese genius in his middle ages that created a cartoon for little children revolving around weird, animal-like creatures that would rule the world if it wasn't for a certain raven haired idiot, who apparently is the Chosen One and rescued the world already about a dozen times and didn't even get one freaking scratch from it? …that's what I thought. (Did that even make sense?)

**_Warning:_** This fanfiction contains various amounts of mushiness, fluff, drama, shopping, light swearing, crazy OOC Misty, Gary Oak, Contestshipping, slight Pokeshipping and angst. …wait, angst?! –flips through chapter- Yes, folks I'm celebrating my angst debut. Even though it's not really angst, but pseudo-angst, if you get what I mean…

**_FYI:_** **On my profile page is a link that's for all of my fellow After Dusk readers! (And if you're not then go and read that fic IMMEDIATELY! …after you have read this, of course.) Yes, I have finally finished the first two pages of my doujinshi based on that awesome fic, so be sure to check them out and leave me feedback! Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

* * *

**

**The Apocalypse? – Part 2 **

Image songs for this chapter: One Step at a time by Jordin Sparks, Porcelain Heart by Barlow Girl and 21 Guns by Green Day. Please listen to them, while reading. I don't know how much they really fit the situations, but to me they do and I think, if you hear them as you read, the mood gets better across. And now go and read.

_**May's POV:**_

I was exhausted. I was annoyed. I was happy that it was finally over.

But what would you expect after almost two hours of being thoroughly tortured?

No, I don't mean the shopping; that hadn't even started yet. What I mean is sport. I know, it doesn't sound very scary but it can be as hell. Especially when you do practically nothing than running around a football field until you're either fainting or the lesson is over. Fortunately or unfortunately (I can't really decide), I'd felt so sick because of the temperature that I had passed out near the end. I woke up in the infirmary with Misty sitting beside the bed, when she destroyed my hopes of maybe not going shopping due to my - err, handicap immediately, as I did so. She told me that Ash had already left because of something his mother wanted him to do, so we could head for the shopping district without further distraction. Of course, I wouldn't have had anything against a little distracting here or there before entering hell. Who wouldn't? But Misty wouldn't allow me to dawdle the least bit and insisted that in the shops the temperature was regulated, so there was nothing for me to worry about. This girl knew absolutely no mercy. (1)

I sighed, as I reflected today afternoon for the 100th time, watching the scenery outside the car flying by. I could hear Misty scolding me due to my constant sighing and groaning, but I simply ignored her. That was the price she had to pay, whenever she forced me to tag along to whatever she had planned out. She thought I needed a more active social life, even though I told her oh so many times that I didn't care about that kind of thing. In her eyes being popular and having a good social life was the second most important thing – the first was getting Ash to date her. Even though her behaviour toward him today wasn't really helping her with it. Turning Drew and me into a lovey dovey couple probably had the highest priority at the moment anyway. Why else would she force me to go shopping, not even caring about the fact that I'd lost consciousness earlier?

I growled, while Misty tried to pull me out of the car into the first shop. I don't remember the name, but that wasn't important at that moment. Important was that the stupid thing had the most girly clothes one would see in his entire life. Or so I thought.

With quite a force, the redhead dragged me through pink and purple skirts, pink and blue shirts and pink and yellow tops, stopping by every now and then to test how it would look on me. I, however, refused to wear anything, of which she'd shown me, since almost everything had somewhere pink in it and mostly ruffles or ribbons were involved.

We withdrew, whilst Misty tried to hide her frown from me and I couldn't help but scoff. She should have known that I wouldn't give in that easily. And she knew girly clothes were out of the question. At least that was what I thought until I saw the next shop. If I'd thought the first one was girly, then I didn't know what this was. And when I looked around, I wondered who'd actually wear something like that. Glancing at my friend the answer was clear: She would. But I would _not_, so I simply walked out of the building and scowled at it. Misty rushed after me right away, not looking too happy over my most recent action.

"Come back, May", she demanded in a deadly serious manner.

"No" My lips curled up to a smirk when I heard her mutter some insults under her breath before answering. "Fine, then what do you want?" I almost snorted in response. Was she seriously asking me that? Gazing at her more closely made me come to the conclusion that she was. "_I_ want to go home."

"That's not an option", she stated harshly.

"Says who?"

"Me!" It was evident in her voice that her patience was running low. I gulped. Cowardly as I was, I decided that I valued my life and gave her a wink to signal her to go on with the power shopping. And how I regretted it. Everything you have to know that at least thirteen other shops followed until we actually landed in one with halfway acceptable clothes.

After Misty had picked out a jeans skirt, that wasn't too short or too long, and a loose, white top with spaghetti straps (2), she pushed me in one of the changing rooms. Obediently, I put on said clothes and was actually kind of okay with how I looked, when I saw my reflection in the mirror. Of course, the redhead immediately recognized the different reaction than my usual scowl and grinned at the 'me' in the mirror. "You like it." It was a statement, not a question.

"It's tolerable."

"I'm going to take that as a yes", she smiled and waited patiently for me to change back, as I returned to the dressing room.

Back in said room I looked down my body and sighed. This would be the first and the last time, that I was going to wear a skirt. Even though I had to admit, it actually did look somewhat good. Not that I was going to tell Misty that.

Quickly, I dressed back and stepped into the crowd of shopping-crazy girls to give the worst of them all the clothes, I had just worn, so she could pay. After she did so, we left the building and I sucked in a deep breath of fresh air (compared to the stale shop-air).

"Now we only need to get you some shoes and then we're done!" Misty exclaimed, as she gave me an encouraging look. My jaw dropped open and panic wiped my face clean from any relief of finally being finished with the sopping tour.

_I thought we were done!_

"Stupid, actually you'd need earrings and accessories as well, but I thought we could leave that for now, since you're only going to watch a movie with him." she said in a matter-of-fact way, apparently reading my thoughts.

I didn't respond – I simply frowned and waited for her to move on to a shoe shop, so we could finally end this horror trip.

* * *

_**Drew's/Normal POV:**_

After school Drew and Gary returned to the Hayden/Maple mansion as quickly as they could with a bunch of fan girls permanently asking them for dates. And surprisingly, Gary had decided helping his best friend out was more important than the love-struck girls around him, so they actually got to Drew's home pretty fast.

When they arrived, Caroline asked them, if they wanted lunch but neither of the two did; they plainly said that there were more important things than eating in life. Caroline simply shrugged it off as puberty and continued reading her romance novel.

"So, what is it exactly you need my help for? " Gary asked shockingly serious, when they were finally in Drew's room.

"Err, clothing, behavior and I still don't what movie we're going to watch." Drew muttered in response. He hated the idea of asking _Gary_ for advice, but it couldn't be helped.

"I suggest, we start off with the easiest – the movie thing. I heard a new Pokémon movie came out recently; why not watch that?" Drew was stunned. There was no other way describing it. He never expected Gary to be so useful and – he hated to admit it – _reasonable_. That was definitely not the Gary he'd known until now. Who was that weird boy in front of him?

"Okay", Drew managed to answer, still blinking blankly at the male in front of him.

"The next thing would be appearance. It's not really hard, just wear something casual, but stylish", Drew snorted at the word, "If you dress up too much, it'll look like you're the pathetic, love-desperate and girlfriend-needy boy you actually are. But you wouldn't want people to know right?"

"What did you call me?!" Drew screeched, surprisingly high pitched for a boy.

"Do not worry, Drewy-Boy, I will keep your little secret away from the world." Gary warbled so sweetly, Drew felt the urge to vomit. Not to mention the urge to punch Gary right in his oh-so-beautiful face. Forcing himself to ignore the rage that boiled within him, he tried to remind himself that he still needed the other – _he was useful_. To Gary's luck, it worked.

Drew let the rest of his anger go with a satisfied sigh of relief and said, "Go on."

"I'm proud of you, Drew. You didn't kick, hit or punch me as usual. This girl has a good influence on you." Gary smiled sincerely – and that's what pissed Drew off the most. It indicated that Gary had meant the crap that had come out his mouth. Drew couldn't help but snort internally.

_May being a good influence…pfft. She hasn't got __**anything**__ to with this. I'm just growing up._

_Keep telling yourself that._

Oh, how Drew hated that little voice in his head that let out all the things he desperately wanted to keep hidden from the world – and from himself. He didn't want to know that May did have something to do with it, since he needed help for the date he had with _her_. And he didn't want to admit that Gary was right. Nor did he want to realize that May affected him and his heart more than she should have.

So he simply shrugged it off and decided that retorting Gary's remark was a lot more appealing than thinking about all sorts of uncomfortable and awkward secrets about his feelings.

"That I _didn't_ do it, doesn't mean I'm not going to!" Drew grunted, as he sent Gary the trademark-Drew-Hayden-glare, that Gary knew better than the back of his own hand.

"Anyhow, to the last point – behavior. Just be", Gary stopped, visibly musing to find the right word, "yourself."

"That's all?" Drew asked, disbelief plastered all over his face. "This can't be it."

"What did you expect? Drew, I helped you with the things you asked me about and that's all I have to say to it. I'm not your mom and-" Gary cut himself off right away, pressing his hands over his mouth like it needed to be shut, or otherwise the words wouldn't stop flowing out of it, as he realized that he just said the forbidden word. Drew had immediately flinched, when he heard it. His face had turned impassive, but in his eyes stormed all kinds of unpleasant emotions.

"I'm sorry", Gary murmured soothingly and made a few steps forward towards Drew, who spun around in an instant, so that his back was facing Gary.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

And with that Drew stepped into the corridor and shut the door behind him, not moving a single millimeter forward (backward was not an option, since the door was right behind him). Gary knew his mother was a sore point, so why did he keep forgetting that mentioning her in any kind of way was an absolute taboo?!

Drew slammed his eyes shut, as his fists clenched, trying to clutch at something that once had been a part of his world, but remained as a dull and foggy memory – impossible ever to be reached.

After merely standing in front his room for five straight minutes, his eyes still pressed closed and his still cramped hands shaking in anger or perhaps simple pain ­– he wasn't entirely sure himself (maybe it was both mingled together) – Drew decided that he couldn't stay here the whole day, while his guest waited in his room for his comeback. Unfolding his hands, he took a deep breath in to calm himself down, as he heard two pairs of feet rapidly approaching, their owners laughing cheerfully.

He still didn't move.

The noises came closer with each second that passed by, yet Drew didn't show any kind of hint that implied that he would leave this spot anytime soon.

"Drew, what are you doing there?" an almost too familiar voice asked after approximately another ten seconds had passed, confusion audible in its undertone. But the emerald eyed boy refused to open his eyes or uttering a single word. He feared if he did, he would turn into that unmanly and stuttering Drew from yesterday.

"Hello? Are you in there?" the voice called, its owner coming closer, thus the space left between her face and Drew's was reduced to a few centimeters. He could feel her hand waving in front of his eyes, causing the subtle scent of strawberries mixed together with her very own creeping up his nose. His brain melted down into a little puddle of uselessness. He could feel his ability to breathe being taken away by their closeness, not minding the thought of dying with that wonderful scent still exploring his nose at all.

He could feel his heart desperately pounding against his chest, ready to burst.

Then suddenly the door behind him flung open, hitting the back of Drew's head hard and destroying the mood greatly. But Gary, who'd been eavesdropping the whole time, knew that now it was the best time to rescue his friend out of that sticky situation, he had gotten himself into. Ignoring Drew and his constant swearing, Gary pulled him back into his room, before sending Misty and May one of his heartbreaker-smiles, saying, "Don't mind him, he's just broken." and closing the door behind him to leave the two dumbstruck girls blinking irritatedly back in the corridor.

"Thank you", Drew muttered under his breath, rubbing the spot where the door had hit him gently. He meant it.

"No problem. You didn't answer May, so I decided to save you. I mean – that's _so_ not like you."

"I don't know what was wrong with me either… I just couldn't breathe or move. It was totally strange." Drew said so quietly that Gary had concentrate, thus he wouldn't miss a word.

After hearing what Drew had just said – if only for a moment - he didn't know what to say nor what to think. This boy in front of him wasn't good ol' arrogant and self-centered Drew. This Drew, who stood in front of him right now was none of those things – he was just helplessly in love with his step sister.

"Stop gaping like that, you look like a goldfish." Drew scoffed, as he flopped onto his bed, being absolutely oblivious about his feelings towards May.

"Wow, Drew!" Gary exclaimed, his eyes widening in surprise at his realization. "I knew you don't play with girls, but I didn't know that you actually could be _serious_ about one."

"What the heck are you talking about?"

Gary winked for a few seconds before sighing and answering. "I should've known that you're the type to be in denial."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Drew repeated, already given up on trying to understand Gary's 'riddles'. Instead of doing that he decided just to wait for a proper explanation to come out of his best friends' mouth.

"C'mon, are you really that stupid not to realize your own feelings? I expected Ash to be dumb enough for it, but actually I considered you a lot smarter." Gary almost shouted, grabbing Drew's shoulders to shake them violently, and internally hoping that this would somehow help the green haired male in front of him in recognizing his love towards that damn girl already. He didn't need his other best friend to be stuck in denial forever, as well. Handling Ash and making quite desperate attempts to bring him and Misty _finally_ together was already hitting the border of his nerves. Especially since nothing seemed to take the cake; Ash's denial wasn't just mere denial – it was pure ignorance.

_No_, he definitely didn't need another of that category.

"What the heck-"

"STOP SAYING THAT DAMMIT!" Gary barked at the top of his lungs and inevitably panted after it. Drew merely cocked an eyebrow to indicate his bewilderment at Gary's recent actions, who was still sucking in sharp breaths quite irregularly, his need for air apparently not fulfilled yet, but continued trying to explain what he meant to his friend anyways. "What I'm trying to tell you here is that you're obviously in love with May."

Drew didn't say anything after this, although he mused about once again using "What the heck are you talking about?", but let it be. He had the weird suspicion that his friend wouldn't like it.

"Hey, Drew? Drew? Come _on_! …ANSWER ME FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!"

"I'm…_what_?" Drew managed after a few seconds and stared at Gary, a mix of hurt and incomprehension visible in his eyes.

"Is it really that hard to admit?" Gary said and rolled his eyes.

Drew broke his gaze from Gary and looked at his feet instead. He felt…bewildered to say the least. He knew he liked May to a certain degree – but being in love? Somehow that idea wasn't of Drew's liking. It didn't match his personality to be in love with someone. Even though here were a lot of things he did in the past few days that didn't match his personality.

He shook his head in an attempt to make that what Gary said undone. It didn't work.

"Are you really sure that I…I'm in love with her?" Saying that out loud was one of the hardest things in Drew's entire life. Gary merely nodded and patted Drew's head, apparently believing it would make the situation better. And while Gary still lived in that belief, Drew already was somewhere completely else – he was admitting to himself that the way he behaved toward May actually could mean that he was in love, and he didn't like it. It made him absolutely unmasculine no matter how he looked at it.

Yes, being in love was _so_ not what he wanted right now.

* * *

_**May's POV:**_

The next day didn't really seem to be much different than the one before and I didn't feel much different either. The weather was the same, the morning routine was the same (the only thing that was different was that Drew _hadn't_ hit me with the fridge's door this time), school was the same. But with every second that passed, the fear of tomorrow grew. It gave me shivers down my spine and a heavy lump in my throat. I wanted to run; I wanted to go somewhere far away, where no-one could find me. At that thought, I couldn't help but smile. No Misty, no Drew, no Max, no Mom, no Peter, no horrible shopping tours, no fear, _no Ash_. I immediately frowned. 'No Ash' didn't sound appealing at all.

"Hey May!" _Speaking of the devil._

I opened my eyes to see a cheerfully smiling Ash approaching and sitting down in front of me. It was lunch break and he just came back from getting himself something to eat. The size of his meal was outrageous – like always, but there was something that irritated me as I looked at my surroundings. Everything seemed peaceful and quiet, something that was as normal in my life as being attacked by a giant blue monkey.

"Where's Misty?" I asked, as he started to shove several things at once in his mouth. He choked and desperately reached out for his water to resolve his _problem_. I chuckled, realizing that once again Ash made the mood lighten up, even though hell was knocking at my door.

"She said something about refreshing her make up, if I recall it correctly." he replied after he managed to swallow. I merely nodded and glanced away. It hurt me to look at him, having _the date_ always present in the back of my mind. I felt like I was betraying him, even though I knew that it was complete and utter nonsense.

"Say, May", Ash suddenly began but trailed off. I didn't turn to look at him.

"I-you…I want to talk about-…about that date you have tomorrow." he stammered quietly, causing me to jolt and stare at him, confusion mixing with a hint of hope in my gaze.

"Yes?"

"To be honest, when Misty said that yesterday, I didn't like the idea of you going out with a boy – or in this case, your step brother." My eyes widened in surprise. Could it be that he – that he was jealous?

_Is it okay, Ash? Is it okay for me to hope?_ I silently asked, as I tried to search for the slightest trail of an answer in his chocolate brown orbs.

"But I realized that you can do whatever you want and if you like that guy, then it's okay for you to date him." He continued and a small, heartbreaking smile made its way on his lips.

_No._

"Also Gary called me yesterday and told me that your step brother is the same Drew from his school, and since they're friends, I guess the whole thing seems more okay."

_No!_

"So, um, go ahead. I-I don't wanna say that you need my allowance or anything, I just want to make sure that you know that I'm really okay with the date, 'cause I think I seemed a little weird about it yesterday." He giggled helplessly and unconsciously began to scratch the back of his head.

_No, no, no! __That's not what I want!!_

"Well, have fun? But if he hurts you or anything then tell me or Misty, so we can kick the crap outta him!" That and his encouraging expression were the final straws for me. Painfully slow, one single tear ran down my cheek, as I glared a hole in the untouched food in front of me. Ash seemed to notice the change in my expression. "Hey, May, are you okay?" he asked concernedly.

_No, I'm not okay. You just gave me your okay to date my step brother, who I was practically forced to date and who I don't like in the first place! It's you who I'm in love with for crying out loud!_

But I didn't tell him that. Instead, I muttered something about being sick and called my mother. She picked me up at the school gate and didn't say anything. I appreciated it. I didn't want to explain why I wanted to go home or why I started to cry like there was no tomorrow as soon as Misty and especially Ash were out of sight. She simply made me something for lunch and hugged me tightly when we arrived home. Sometimes it was rather helpful to have a caring mother. (Although I wasn't entirely sure about the 'caring' thing, looking at all the _unexpected_ events of the past few days.) I was also grateful for Max still being in school. It would have been horrible with him around, laughing his ass off about his big sister wanting to come home, while crying like a giant infant. That little monster would've made the situation even worse for me.

After I was finished with lunch, I locked myself in my room for the rest of the afternoon. I still didn't want to talk to anyone, I just wanted to be left alone and fortunately everyone seemed to respect that. Or perhaps Mom told them to stay away from my room for a while, I wasn't sure. But actually it didn't matter anyway. I was still hurt by my encounter with Ash. Truth to be told, I admit that he didn't do anything wrong, but that didn't make it less painful. Not in the slightest. Even though I knew that he didn't like me romantically it had felt like being stabbed directly into the heart. Experiencing the real thing instead of merely imagining it must be different after all, I guessed.

In an attempt to make me feel better I switched on the radio, just to internally snort at the song, which was playing. Porcelain heart by Barlow Girl. I wondered if I landed on a Christian radio channel, as I listened to the lyrics more closely. (3)

_Broken heart_

_One more time_

_Pick yourself up_

_Why even cry?_

_Broken pieces _

_In your hands_

_Wonder how you'll make it whole_

It was really ironic how they seemed to fit my situation so well. At the same time it made me sick, I absolutely didn't need to be reminded of how I felt. Quickly I changed the radio station. The new one wasn't any better – One Step at a Time by Jordin Sparks. Were there only love songs airing nowadays?

_We live and we learn to take_

_One step at a time_

_There's no need to rush _

_It's like learning to fly_

_Or falling in love _

_It's gonna happen and_

_It's supposed to happen_

_And we find the reasons why_

_One step at a-_

I switched the radio off, crossed my arms over my chest and scowled. _Shut up, Jordin_, I thought. _I don't need you to tell me what to do or how to fall in love._

There was one good thing that the two songs caused though – I wasn't completely depressed anymore. Now it was anger mixed with pain and sadness. Not what people would call terrific but it was better nonetheless. With that in mind I decided to leave my room in order to bathe.

The corridor was completely wiped from any hint of other people living in this house and I was glad that it was. Still looking around to check if really no-one was there (not that it mattered) I made my way to the bathroom and locked the door. I didn't need anyone to just pop in and see me taking a bubble bath.

After getting rid of my clothes and filling the bathtub with nice, hot water, I lay down and let myself drown (not literally) in the relaxing warmth. It was exactly what I needed at that moment and it even took a little of my pain away. It made me realize that not being loved by Ash Ketchum didn't mean the end of the world – it just meant that I hadn't met the right person for me yet. Immediately the smirking face of a particular grass haired boy popped up in my thoughts. Ugh.

I scowled. _Wow, I'm getting good at that.

* * *

_

I don't know how much time I exactly spent bathing. I'm guessing it was that about an hour had passed, before I staggered out of the bathtub, dried myself and realized I hadn't brought any clean clothes for me to wear. That didn't bother me too much though; I hoped that nobody had dared leaving their rooms yet, so I wouldn't be seen. Thus, I simply wrapped a towel around my body and stepped out in the cool corridor. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting Drew to stand directly in front of the bathroom (so practically, only a few centimeters away from me), ready to open the door.

"Aaaaaaaah!" I wasn't sure who of us was the one who screamed. Even though I _think_ it was me.

"W-what are _you_ doing here?!" I could hear myself screeching, as my cheeks began heating up.

"I want to take a bath!" he answered, visibly shocked and embarrassed.

"B-but _I_ was taking a bath!" _Why the gosh darned hell isn't he looking away?_

"Well, I see that, but how was I supposed to know?!" _Damn him and his sense-making logic._ I obviously did not have an answer for that one and it bothered me greatly.

"I…don't know." I admitted after a short pause of searching for a decent reply in my head.

"Well, could you sort of move now?" He seemed to begin feeling rather uncomfortable with our proximity and with the obvious lack of clothes on my body and I felt the same way, so I did as he said and fled into my room, muttering several insults under my breath as I did so.

That night I dreamt about Andrew Hayden for the first time.

* * *

_**A/N:**_ Hello everyone and welcome to my author's note! :D

…ahem, anyway, onto some explanations.

(1)Yeah, about that whole Misty-just-takes-May-to-a-shopping­-tour-even-though-the-girl just­-_fainted_-before-thing…Misty knows May so long that she knows that handicap good enough to decide whether May can go shopping or not – besides, she even slept a little before. Misty isn't evil enough to do something like that, without _thinking_ about it.  
Is she? –sweatdrops-

(2) It's supposed to look something like THIS (-- there's supposed to be a link that has not been posted yet. :/). Btw, if some of you think the shopping tour part was WAY to short, then well – I'm sorry part but it had to be cut due to me being German and the obvious lack of language here. Yes, I had serious problems with it. :/ (Seriously though, is me being German noticeable in my writing style? I'm trying hard to hide it but I still have to constantly use my dictionary. –hides Encarta behind her back-)

(3) a. I didn't mean to insult or offend Christians in any way, got it? I just wanted to point out that such a song wouldn't air on a mainstream radio channel. (Would it? I don't know about American or Britain radio channels, but in Germany it wouldn't. Enlighten me, if I'm talking trash here.)

b. I usually don't use song lyrics but I've been listening to these two songs, while writing this chapter (as I said above) and I just felt like trying it out. Sorry, if I did a horrible job with it or you just don't like it. Suck it up and skip that part please. Kaythx.

Hm, I already have a vague idea regarding that dream, but before I write that part why don't you guys try to suggest something? Maybe you have more fantasy than I do. :)

So, all I can do right now is **beg you to** **REVIEW**. Reviews help me and my writing ability to grow! And I really wanna grow, so please! **Help me sprout!**

PS: Did you notice? I didn't put in any wall abuse this chapter to reward you all for reviewing so much! I can't say how much I love you guys!


	7. The Date!

_**A/N:**_ Le gasp! I updated earlier! :O I don't know what's gotten into me that I suddenly felt the urge to finish this today, but – here it is! ;) Yes folks, the day you've all been waiting for has finally arrived! I just hope I won't disappoint anyone…(the date was planned to be this way from the very start – just to let you know that)

_**Warning:**_ The following fanfiction contains a weird (slightly offensive? o.o) dream, fluff, a Drew in love, Misty, Ash and Gary as stalkers, swearing and is unbetad.

_**Disclaimer:**_ If I was Satoshi Taijiri, would I be even writing this? I guess not, since it would have already happened in the show. Not to mention that this site is called **fan**fiction.

Now go take something to drink, popcorn, sit back and enjoy your crappy anime fanfiction.

* * *

**Chapter 7: The date (What the hell was that?!)**

_**May's POV:**_

"_This one will be yours." I raised my head at the sudden mentioning about something being mine and we stopped in front of a cell that looked like every other one in that building, for the exception that this one had an emerald haired boy locked in it. He looked like he was about my age and had the most beautiful face, even though right now it was formed into a rather frightening scowl. _

_One of the two guards who had guided me up until now opened the door of the cell, as the other one pushed me inside along with some of my stuff in a brown bag, before shutting and locking it again. Then they left._

_I sat down on the bed that was positioned at the opposite wall to the one, where that boy still remained in his stiff position on his bed, refusing to even blink. Although his glare shot right through me, he did not seem to look _at_ me, but firmly _through _me and nothing more – like I wasn't even there._

"_Hey", was my rather simple try to socialize. I internally snorted. Trying to socialize with a criminal – was I stupid? _You're one as well_, I had to remind myself, but I still wasn't used to this whole criminal-prison thing._

"_Hello", he gave back. It stunned me that he even bothered to reply. "Why are you here?" he asked quietly, after a few seconds of silence._

"_Because I was a bad, bad girl." _

"_You don't look very 'bad'", he stated abruptly, not seeming to catch my poor attempt to be humorous._

"_Well, you're not the typical bank robber yourself." I deadpanned, as I rolled my eyes._

"_That's because I'm not", he retorted, his voice never more than an impassive murmur._

"_So, why are you here then?" I teased._

"_I killed my best friend" he answered, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. I choked, but not because I was scared, because I was surprised. What a coincidence._

"_Are you afraid?" he asked and I wondered if I just heard a small hint of amusement in his voice's undertone._

"_Not really", I replied casually. "I sort of did the same thing." This seemed to have gotten his interest, I guessed, as he raised his right eyebrow mockingly. _

"_You want to tell me that you are here, because you murdered your best friend?"_

"_Pretty much" I began to ask myself why I was put in the same cell as a boy. Weren't cell mates supposed to have the same sex?_

"_And why did you do that?" he asked, slightly chuckling. Somehow it made me happy, that I'd been able to break the mask he'd been wearing up until now. He looked a lot more human this way._

"_She dragged me to one of her shopping tours again, then I flipped out and kinda stabbed her", I explained, noticing that I didn't feel the slightest guilt about killing Misty. It just felt like she deserved it and I did something that was only right.  
The boy in front of me seemed to be rather impressed by my attitude. _

"_Cool", he said. "It's sort of the same with me. Gary was being even more annoying than usual and I just couldn't take it anymore and when I saw that baseball bat lying around so innocently I just couldn't help myself, you know?" His eyes seemed to glow at the memory and they looked even more gorgeous that way.  
I nodded in an understanding manner. "Now that I know your dead friend's name – don't you think, you could tell me yours?"_

"_Drew", he smiled, causing me to smile back. _

"_May", I said, as I remembered something. "By the way, why did they put me together with a boy? Isn't that against the rules or something?"_

"_I don't know", he mused pensively. "Maybe they thought, it was a clever thing to do – after all, the two of us did the same thing, so maybe they thought, we would get along well." He had a point there, I mean, we did get along pretty well._

"_Sounds plausible", I muttered in response as I glanced through the tiny window in the large, gray wall. Apart from Drew, this place was uncomfortable and unwelcoming in every possible way and I didn't like that at all._

"_So, Miss I-like-to-kill-people, how long are you going to stay at this lovely place?" he asked, a sarcastic smirk spreading over his face. I knew it was an attempt to keep my mood from dropping and I appreciated it greatly._

"_First of all, I don't like to kill people, what I did had to be done, okay? To answer your question…it's twelve bloody years." I scowled at the rather unappealing number._

"_Twelve years? That's kinda harsh for a minor, isn't it?" _

"_They gave me so much, because I didn't regret what I did to her or something along those lines." I replied. "You don't look really surprised though."_

"_That's because I had the same problem. Although I guess, I can say I was lucky – I got only ten years." _

_"What? I'm gonna kill you!" I shouted, debating whether to laugh at my own statement or to let it be. I decided on the first, as he snickered back, "Not if I kill you first."_ (1)

* * *

My eyes shot open.

_What the hell was _that_?_

The answer was plain and obvious, but surprising nonetheless. _It_ was a dream.

_Wait a second. I dreamt about being in jail with Drew?_

That sounds awfully like a bad fanfic.

Brushing that last thought aside, I jerked up, left the comfortable warmth that was my bed and carefully made my way to the door, trying not to collide with any furniture in the darkness as I did so. I needed something to drink. And maybe some cookies, too.

Like in a perfectly clichéd horror movie, the door _creaked_ open as I stepped into the dark corridor. It was quiet and deserted from any human being that might have lived here during the day - I didn't expect it to be any different, it was the middle of the night after all. And since it was the middle of the night, it was also pitch-black, so I waited for a moment to get my eyes used to the dark. Much to my regret, it didn't work, thus, I began to carefully stumble forward, but nearly fell down the stairs nonetheless.

Damn my clumsiness.

After what felt like half an eternity I finally made it into the kitchen with merely a bump on my forehead and several tiny bruises on my legs – I knew worse – and sneaked towards where I guessed was the fridge. Too bad I never reached it.

**WHACK!**

Yup, you guessed right.

"What the hell?" I barked into the night, trying to make out the reason for the second bump, that was growing on my forehead, although it wasn't all too easy whilst darkness was covering everything like a thick, impermeable blanket.

"Not so loud! Do you want everybody in the street to wake up and yell at us?" a definitely masculine voice hissed angrily, as I felt a hand pulling me back onto my feet.

"Drew?"

"Yes, that would be me ."

"Could you hold your asshole-ness in for a moment and tell me what in the name of Ash's idiocy you're doing here?" I growled, although a lot less loud than before.

"I can't sleep." He stated, pointing out the obvious. Of course he couldn't sleep, otherwise he wouldn't have been here, ready to knock me out with the fridge's door at 3 o'clock for the _third_ time. "I could ask you the same thing though."

"I, err, had a…weird dream." A shudder ran down my spine, when the memory of it came back to life.

"A nightmare?" Usually I would have been delighted by his concern but right now it was really not wanted – for rather obvious reasons.

_Doesn't he know when a girl needs her privacy?_

"S-something like that", I stuttered, suddenly starting to regret leaving my room.

Damn those cookies.

_Oh why did I have that dream?_

"You want to tell me? You sound sort of uneasy," he said and sounded seriously worried as he did so. _The reason for my uneasiness is you, you useless idiot!_

"Err, no thanks." I had to leave this place. _Fast_.

"Well then, I think we should go back to bed." I loved him for that phrase, I could have just hugged and kissed him. But I didn't – first, because that would be kind of anti-climatic to this story's plot; second, because, over all, he was a far too big jerk for that; third, I couldn't quite see him in the dark of the night.

Apparently he didn't seem to have that problem at all. "Are you moving or what?"

I groaned in response and followed his footsteps upstairs, realizing that this way, moving was a lot safer and more efficient. In fact it was so efficient that it took us merely a minute to get back to 'our' corridor instead of the half eternity I had needed.

I opened my bedroom door and was about to mutter a "Good night", when one of his hands suddenly gripped my left one and said, "WearewatchingPokemontomorrowatfivepmIwillbewaitingforyouathalfpastfourinfrontofyourroomdon'tbelate." And without further adieu (or "Good Night" in this case) he scurried into his room and shut the door with a 'clack', which echoed in the dull, awkward silence that the boy had me left behind in.

I could merely stand there in the doorframe of my room and wonder how he had managed to put so much words in one sentence and with _this_ speed.

"Come again?"

* * *

The next day started rather awkward, since I tried to avoid my green haired step brother as good as I could, still being haunted by my 'nightmare'. And it was rather hard to accomplish that, looking at the fact that we lived in the same house. But somehow I managed not to talk to him, let him talk to me or even laying a single eye on him the whole morning, before hurrying outside to get the hell out of that house – I swear, it was the first time in my whole life that I was so eager to get to school.

"What's gotten into you that you practically fled to me in the car this morning?" Misty asked me in lunch break, as we made our way through the crowded corridors to the cafeteria, where Ash was probably already waiting for us, eating like there would be no tomorrow.

"Nothing. I have no idea what you're talking about", I lied, most likely in a too obvious manner, so Misty would notice right away. And she did.

"C'mon May, I know you, like, forever. I know you're lying!" she scoffed and rolled her eyes, nudging me into my shoulder. "Tell me the truth."

"Tonight…I had a pretty strange dream and it's just really freaking me out." I dared to admit, but somehow feared that I had said too much.

"Hold on!" she called and we both stopped our walking, standing in the middle of the floor, pretty much in the way of everyone. Her expression seemed highly shocked. "You didn't have a wet dream or something, have you? Because if you did, then I don't want to talk about it." I immediately restarted stalking to the cafeteria, making extra large steps and knowingly ignoring her question.

"Hey wait for me!" she cried and hurried after me. When she caught up with me, she gave me a questioning look.

"What?"

"What do you mean 'what'? Was it a wet dream or not?" I didn't answer, simply because the question wasn't worthy of being answered. "Well, if it wasn't that, then it must have been a dream involving Drew." My eyes widened in shock and in an instant I spun around, to be once again rewarded with her infamous cat-grin. My reaction told her everything she needed.

"So I'm right, huh? But I do wonder what a dream about _Drew_ could be about, if it wasn't a w-"

"We were in freaking jail, okay?! We were in jail, because he killed Gary and I killed you! We were in jail and talked and were having a greater time than I could ever possibly have with you!"

"Hey, don't shout like that, you're scaring me!" She pouted, but instantly started to beam, as she spotted Ash in the crowd of hormone plagued junior highschoolers. My heart stung when also my eyes reached his face, but I knew it would fade away. Eventually.

"Hey Ash! You know what? May had a dream about Drew this night! They were-" I once again cut her off, but this time not with words but with my hands strangling her from behind. Almost, I killed her, but thinking about the word 'kill' the memory of my dream flashed back into my mind, so (to her luck) I let go and sat down at 'our' table, putting on my best frown.

"I have no idea what's going on, but I'm not even sure, if I want to know." Ash stated, shooting each of us an odd look, before turning his attention back to the neglected plate in front of him, since neither me or Misty seemed to be in the mood of replying. Misty wasn't, because she was still paralyzed by my attack and I wasn't, because I simply didn't feel like it.

After a few minutes of weird, indescribable silence Misty cleared her throat (rather loud might I add) to regain mine and apparently also Ash's attention. Reluctantly we turned our looks to her, Ash not wanting to stop eating, while I already knew I wasn't going to like what she was about to say. I never did when she wore that serious and yet so soothingly understanding expression, that was supposed to assure everyone around that there was nothing to fear in the world. But there was – in fact, she was a very part of that list with things to be scared of.

"May, I know you're embarrassed about what happened, but I can confirm that dreaming about the person you like is perfectly normal for a young and healthy teenager like me or you or-"

"You're getting off topic", I stated firmly, wondering if she still clung to the idea of me dreaming 'naughty things', whilst Ash had already averted his concentration back on his food. Maybe it was better this way, I didn't need him to know about this kind of stuff. Especially when Misty was exaggerating like that.

"Ah, sorry about that." She laughed nervously. "Anyway, if you have anything to tell me, I'll be sure to listen. I mean, it's really not like I want to but if you feel the need to then-" Poor Misty was interrupted once again, but this time I wasn't the one at fault.

"I don't want to disturb you or anything, but you're about to embarrass the heck out of May. I think you should stop. If she doesn't want to talk about it then you have to accept that, got it?"

It had been Ash, who now sent her a deep glare.

_So he heard? Damn._

But despite that, I felt eternal gratitude towards him. He often was the one to shut Misty up when she again was ranting about the stupidest things. It surprised me every time, since normally he was the most childish one out of the three of us, but sometimes Misty managed to snatch that title away from him. I used to be that way as well, but since my dad had passed away, my personality changed into more quiet, more rational. More reasonable. I guess, it's a natural thing; sort of like a try to prevent that to happen to other people I knew, wanting to protect them.

"Got it", she sighed, not too pleased with the outcome of the conversation.

_They're like Ying and Yang - the perfect match for each other.

* * *

_

Okay, now I was officially scared. In approximately ten minutes Drew would show up for our date and outside were 36°C; I just couldn't decide what of the two the reason was, that I felt like I was about to faint. Perhaps it was both.

I sat, already fully dressed in my 'date-outfit', on my bed and glanced every ten seconds over to my alarm clock, silently waiting like a criminal for his execution.

_I can't do this._

_I'm scared._

_I don't wanna go._

_No-one can seriously expect me to do this._

Yes, they could and I would do it. There was no way for me backing away now, simply because there was no 'back'. Only forth, forth, forth. Forth into my own destruction.

_I can't do this._

_I can't do this and I'm scared - scared that I'm gonna screw up._

_You _want_ to screw up, remember?_

Oh.

And there it was, the thirty I was afraid of seeing, but it was there, screaming at me from the display of my alarm clock. I gasped, staring in shock at the number, inwardly hoping it would gradually disappear if I stared long enough.

**Knock-knock.**

OhmyGod.

"D-do come i-in", I stuttered, my mind telling him the exact opposite, but he did and looked gorgeous as ever as he did so. He wore jeans and a violet t-shirt, which clashed in a with his hair way that made it look absolutely cool. It made me envy him. I would have liked to have that kind of fashion sense as well, but I had never been in good terms with clothing shops.

"You're wearing a skirt", Drew said, clearly stating the obvious, but the way his eyes widened and his voice sounded made it seem like it was a Nobel-Prize-worthy discovery.

"Duh."

"I've never seen you do that." If I hadn't caught him blinking, I would have thought he was frozen in time, damned to gape at me in a stunned manner forever.

"There's a first time for everything", I deadpanned, starting to get rather annoyed by his ridiculously surprised face.

Drew muttered something incoherent under his breath, turning away, perhaps…blushing? It couldn't be. Yet, the way his ears changed into a bright shade of red told otherwise. Now it was my turn to gape. That didn't last too long though, because he suddenly grasped my hand and started running out of my room and out of the house, while our parents and Max were snickering at the sight.

"What the hell, Drew?" I panted angrily, when we finally stopped a few streets away from Conrad Avenue 21.

"I just thought we should hurry a little. We already wasted enough time", Drew mumbled quietly, still visibly flushed to the max (although the heat did its part to that, as well) and never letting go of my hand, that was still securely enclosed by his. Weird thing, that it didn't even cross my mind to do so myself, huh?

"Yeah, sure. Do you even know where you dragged me to?" At my words, he tilted his head in mockery and snorted.

"May", he said. "I live here already my entire life, of course I know where we are, stupid." The insult sounded more like a term of endearment and somehow I had a feeling that he had it also meant this way. It caused my cheeks to heat up and I wasn't really sure why they did.

"Anyway, let's go", he suggested, giving up to wait for a response.

But we never did.

Instead, everything suddenly started to get quite blurry and _hot_ and I could feel myself stagger into someone's, most likely Drew's, arms.

"Hey, you alright?" he shrieked at my actions, his arms supporting my weight just fine.

* * *

_**Drew's POV:**_

"Yeah", May answered, while her face had an unhealthy looking shade of white spreading over her face and little pearls of sweat rolled down her forehead. "And I can stand _alone_!" But when she tried, she stumbled back onto me and I couldn't help but be surprised at her weight again. She was so light compared to what she looked like _and_ what she ate.

"Of course you can", I scoffed, gazing down in her glassy, azure eyes that normally seemed to sparkle of energy. I was becoming rather worried now. May apparently recognized that, because she muttered a "Don't bring me into a hospital, please", before finally passing out and collapsing into my arms.

I sighed. "Okay, where's the next park bench?"

* * *

Approximately thirty minutes later I was still waiting for May to regain consciousness on a bench, which didn't get too much of the sun's rays, in a park, that was conveniently nearby. Yet, the way there had been a complete and utter torture – at least for me. Since May hadn't been quite present, I had to carry her - somehow I ended up doing it bridal style - what caused the rest of the town's population, that was around and able to see me to stare, scoff or whistle at me. If it hadn't been May, I would've thrown her at them just to shut them up.

Suddenly a weak groan from the right caught my attention. I averted my attention to May, who seemed to have just woken up. She looked up at me through half-lidded eyes, still making a sickly impression.

"Where am I?" she asked, her voice sounding far too weak for my liking. Why couldn't she just shut up and rest, when she didn't feel good. Hell, why did she even bother to go through with the date if she had felt like this the whole time?

"On a bench, obviously", I replied sarcastically and flashed her a grin, which she returned with a small, warm smile, before raising her head slightly to get a better view of her surroundings. I stopped that immediately and carefully placed it on my lap instead – this way, she was able to see everything around perfectly well, without overstraining herself. At that, a slight blush found its way on her face, making it look a lot healthier, whilst she attempted to wipe it off her face to replace it with a scowl, but failed miserably and decided to snort instead.

"Drew, you don't have to do that, really. I'm fine."

"Yeah, right. That's probably why you're face is all pale and gray", I said, rolling my eyes at her. She frowned in a manner, that indicated that she didn't believe me at all. "You _do_."

"Don't talk trash! According to how my face feels now, it must look like the perfect replica of a tomato."

"As much as I like tomatoes, I have to disappoint you."

She giggled and shifted her head a bit, so she was able to see my face better, while talking. Her face was practically radiating joy and the color of it gradually changed back to normal, as her eyes twinkled wickedly.

This was the May I knew and-

_No, Drew._

_At least not today._

"This is even better than watching a movie", May beamed from below, shining greater than the sun above ever could. My heart skipped a beat.

-loved.

"What?" was everything I managed to squeeze through my lips. The breathing process in my body was currently experiencing technical difficulties.

"I said 'this is even better than watching a movie'", she repeated confusedly, tilting her head lightly.

"Oh" Originally, I meant to say "Why?", but actually I was happy that something had found its way out of my mouth at all.

_**Ash's POV:**_

Actually he had planned to beat the Elite Four that afternoon and maybe train a little more, but somehow he ended up stalking Drew and May on their date. (2)

And it was all _her_ fault.

If it wasn't for that damned redhead, he could have been champion of the Sinnoh League by now, but they just _had_ to look after them and see that everything went the way it should. And that was just the peak of the iceberg - _Gary_, his rival in everything and long-time best friend, tagged along, as well. Why he did that, Ash wasn't entirely sure, though. Maybe Misty had forced him to come, but he looked more like he was enjoying it, so Ash guessed, it was to gather information to embarrass the shit out of Drew later. Yeah, that would be a Gary-thing to do.

"Don't they look absolutely adorable together?"

Ash let out throaty groan of annoyance, causing Misty to slap her on his mouth to cover it. "Stay quiet, idiot! They could hear us", Misty hissed, before letting go of him, so he could finally breathe again.

"I'm surprised they didn't hear us yet – I mean, we're not really sneaky, not to mention you're constant fawning, that isn't exactly quiet, either."

**SLAP!**

"Ouch! What was that for?!" Ash gritted through his teeth, while stroking the bump that was beginning to form on his head.

"Could the two of you please shut your goddamn mouths? This way I can't hear anything they're saying", Gary interrupted the quarrel, before Misty was able to even think of an response.

"Even if we were quiet, we wouldn't hear a single word, because we're too freaking far away." Ash remarked, secretly hoping that this was going to end soon.

"Hush, Ash! They're beginning to move!" Misty yelled as quiet as she could.

"I wonder if they're going to had back home. May did faint after all." Gary mused, whilst watching the two teenagers pensively.

"Am I seeing things or are they walking in our direction?" Ash whispered suddenly, hoping that it was just hallucination, since he obviously did not want to be caught spying on his best friend's date.

"T-they are." Misty made a few steps backwards, her viridian eyes widening in the realization, that there wouldn't be enough time to get away. Ash was similar shocked, while Gary didn't seem any different than his normal self.

Ash watched May and Drew coming closer and closer and closer, not able to move. This would be _so_ mortifying.

Then they were there, way too close for Ash's liking. Couldn't they just leave again and pretend this didn't happen?

"You're pretty bad at hiding, you know that?"

* * *

_**A/N:**_ OMG cliffie! Yes, it had to be done; the scene just screamed to be cut there. –sweatdrops- Please don't kill me?

Explanations:

(1) I know the dream was rather weird and full of nonsense, but so are dreams. Sometimes I hate stories, where the protagonists have dreams that make so much sense – too much sense, in fact. I never have dreams that are that logical.

(2) I'm (obviously) referring to the game.

About the chapter: I had a blast writing that dream. It was something completely different than the actual story and it was so much fun! :D It's based on a dream I had myself a week ago and it's one of the more logical ones. (You don't wanna know the shit that my brain sometimes produces at night!) Of course, Drew wasn't my cell mate, but it was a boy. I also don't remember who I killed, all I remember is that I didn't feel guilty at all. (Lol?) The rest is kind of blurry, so I made it up and adjusted it a little to the story. ;) Also, I have two **requests for all of you!**

**First**, I want to continue to write May's dreams and I had sort of a rather harsh nightmare, a few days ago, with –cough- rape –cough- and –cough- 'a little' –cough- violence. And although it's sort of 'hardcore' (Lawl.) I would like to write it as the next dream. But I'm not sure if I really should, so I want to know what you think. I can promise you that the fluffiest CS-fluff will be the result of it, but I want to ask before I write it.

**Second**, please send me dream ideas! Lots of dream ideas! That would be a blast! 8D

**I will keep the next chapters as hostages if you don't REVIEW**! So do it or you'll never know what happens! (Yes, I'm a sucker for review_s_ if you haven't already noticed.)

PS to all who reviewed: You guys are made of pure awesomesauce! Seriously, I love you; you make my inflated ego even more inflated, so it almost exploded, only like an ego that was inflated by you could! :D Free Harley-voodoo dolls for everyone!

Much Love,

Judy C:


	8. Bloody Hell

**_A/N:_** Oh. My. Gawd. I am so terribly sorry, I don't know how to express it in words. Two months. I left you waiting for a new chapter for TWO MOTNHS! –smacks head against a wall- I'm so stupid, I know, but a major writer's block captured me – it was horrible! D: All that came out was worthless, so I concentrated on school and drawing instead. But now I and my inspiration are back! ;D I have several ideas for new fics. One is a multi chapter fiction (again) starring ay and Drew. It's called **The Ugly Truth** and the first chapter _should_ be out when this is published. I highly recommend you to read it since I'm having a blast writing it! (And because I'm in a desperate need for reviews DX) Btw, thank you guys for the reviews for the last chapter! I was so happy. Especially Arysd's review made my day. (I can't promise anything about that one shot, though :'D)

**_Warning:_** Err…. I dunno? See what happens. ;)

_**Disclaimer:**_ I wish I had some witty, funny way to say that I do NOT own Pokemon and its characters. Satoshi Taijiri does.

* * *

**Chapter 8: Bloody Hell**

_**May's POV:**_

It was outrageous, unbelievable, insane, weird, creepy…

_Why does God do this to me?_

_Why, why, why, why?_

"You're pretty bad at hiding you know that?" Drew said, tilting his head in mockery. He was visibly bemused at the sight in front of him – and if this situation hadn't involved me, I would've been as well. Too bad that this wasn't one of my dreams, but unforgiving, ugly reality.

"Why hello Drew, how is your date going?" Gary asked, nonchalantly over going the fact that he was a caught stalker with nowhere to run to.

I was still rather disturbed by the situation, so I wasn't able to say anything. Instead, I let Drew the lead. Right now he seemed in a far better condition to manage our scary, stupid, weird stalker-friends than I could have ever been anyway.

"Good until I spotted you STALKING us. I knew that you did loads of strange stuff, but I didn't think you were that low, Gary."

"I'm sorry, Drew", Gary answered and it sounded awfully genuine. Drew's eyes widened in shock as if the phrase "I'm sorry" didn't fit Gary at all. And for all I knew, it probably didn't.

"What?" Drew gulped out and unconsciously stepped in front of me like he tried to protect me from the explanation that was about to leave Gary's mouth.

"I mean it, Drew. I'm sorry." The chestnut-brown haired boy repeated, as a whole-hearted smile spread across his face. "I'm sorry that we did this. Although we did not mean to offend you with our actions, might I add. We merely wanted to watch over you, but it seems it wasn't necessary after all."

Drew cocked an eyebrow, pointing out his confusion. "And what exactly does that mean?"

"Even though you weren't able to see the movie, the date still went fairly well, wouldn't you say so, as well?"

Before Drew could utter his response, Misty shot beside Gary, her shy attitude from a few minutes ago completely vanished from her features. "'Fairly well'? Gary are you, like, out of your mind? She lay on his lap!" she yelled, while winking at me subtly. Don't ask me how she managed that simultaneously.

I blushed at her and my eyes couldn't help but flash to Ash for a second before finally staring up to Drew, whose face didn't reveal the slightest trail of embarrassment – it just looked beautiful as ever, stoic, fascinating, enticing, mesmerizing. Like he didn't belong to this world. Or to me.

_May, what are you thinking?_

I internally snorted. Seriously, _what_ was I thinking? Of course he didn't belong to me. Never had – never would. Yet still, somewhere in the depths of my heart there was a part of me screaming for my attention to tell me I was lying to myself, but I honestly had no intention on listening to it. I wasn't ready for this. At least not yet.

Not wanting to waste another thought on that topic, I averted my gaze from his face back to where Misty, Ash and Gary stood – oh sorry, my mistake – should have stood. They seemed to have left, since I wasn't able to spot them anywhere.

"May, I think I'm your boyfriend."

…_huh?_

"Do you mind telling me how you came to that conclusion?" I didn't believe what I was hearing – no, scratch that. I _couldn't_ believe what I was hearing. Did I really spend that much time thinking, that I did not catch this rather _noticeable_ change of events?

"Are you telling me you weren't listening?" Drew asked bewildered, with a small hint of – Lord help us all – disappointment ghosting over his face? Was I seeing things? I sure hoped I was.

"Err…to be honest – no. I was sort of busy." _With staring at your face, which is way too handsome for your own good, anyway._

"O… Kay," he said and shot me a questioning look. I just glared, indicating that I still wanted an explanation. "Isn't it kind of obvious?" he asked, his eyes still silently scoffing at me.

I really didn't get what he meant. Obvious? Why was it obvious?

"The reason starts with 'M'", he chuckled at my confused face, causing it to become even more confused. Couldn't he just stop being so bloody cryptic-

M. _M. _

_**M!**_

Like _Misty_.

I really began to hate that name. It just meant trouble and more trouble.

"She thinks we're madly in love with each other or something", he murmured quietly, after he'd made sure that realization had finally found its way to my brain.

"And now she's going to tell everybody?"

"Seems that way."

_OhmyGod._

My mind was blank, empty, wiped from any idea how to fix this.

That damned redhead actually managed to get me over dating my step brother into becoming his permanent girlfriend?! This was unacceptable. But how would I be able to stop it? It was already too late now, wasn't it? When Misty said she was going to tell everybody, then it meant _everybody_. By tomorrow morning probably half of the entire town would know and at the end of the week it wouldn't be strange to say that the information had spread over the whole country. Misty was insane like that – she would make sure that every single boy would be informed, so my 'happiness' was safe.

And just like that I felt dizzy again.

I staggered and immediately a strong arm shot up to steady my position. I didn't look up; I knew who it was.

"Are you okay?"

Trying to formulate an answer, I opened my mouth, but no matter how hard I tried, the words just wouldn't flow. I was frozen. Frozen and doomed to date my step brother.

_Why don't you give it a try?_ That stupid, impertinent voice from before asked. _Drew is nice and likes you. It doesn't need to lead to a serious relationship. Just give it a try._

_But-_

_Ash doesn't love you – he never did. At least not in that way._

"Hey, May! Answer me!" His concerned, shockingly melodic voice caused my heart to throb painfully against my rib cage, anxiety almost ripping it out of my chest and I prayed that it would, so I could die right here, bleeding to death in the arms of my stepbrother and not needing to make a decision.

_Talk about overreacting. _

"May-"

"I-I don't have a problem with it." I huffed and dared glancing shortly at the worried face above me.

He seemed just as confused as I was just a few minutes ago, if not more. "What do you mean by that?"

"I think I'm okay with being your girlfriend." I said, that anxious, breathtaking feeling never leaving my chest. I could feel my legs starting to shake, forcing me to restrain myself to keep my knees from giving in.

Drew didn't say anything after that, leaving silence where should have been a reply. It left me feeling alone, as if he wasn't just standing right behind my back; as if he didn't want me like I thought he would. A part of me felt relieved, another part felt hurt and disappointed.

Then suddenly he moved away from me and started to walk in what I believed was the direction that lead homewards – and I was pretty sure that a smile was gracing his lips as he did so.

_Ash, I think Drew's my boyfriend._ (1)

* * *

"_May, I don't think this is good", he says, shifting slightly to show me how uncomfortable he feels with my decision._

"_There's nothing to worry about!" I assure him but it doesn't look like it's working. "I'm a big girl, I can watch over myself, don't you think?"_

_He turns his face away from me, seeming to have a sudden interest in the dirty ground under our feet. He does that every time and never anything happens. So why does he still worry all the time anyway?_

"_Oh, come _on_, Drew!" I shout, but I don't have to worry about people turning their heads and/or shooting us weird looks. We're the only people around in miles and he knows it. Maybe that's what scares him so much. What a coward._

_Drew lets out a deep sigh, which is more likely a hint for his increasing concern and not relief. "Fine", he says reluctantly._

"_Good", I smile. I hate that we have to go through this everyday, since it ends always with the same conclusion: I go by myself and nothing happens to me. It never does – something like _that _only happens in creepy movies. But I don't watch those, I get nightmares from them. "You need to go to your job, Drew. You're already late."_

"_I guess, you're right", he sighs again and a weak smile is curling up his lips as he raises his head. "Just…take care." His bright emerald eyes are still telling me that he has a bad feeling about this, but I'm used to that by now._

"_I will." _

_And with that I'm turning on my heels, waving him goodbye as I do so, and on my way home. It's dark and no-one's on the street, but I'm not afraid. It's always like this. _

_I'm passing that little playground to my left like I do every day, when I hear a noise. It's not very loud and sounds a little choked, yet it's noticeable. It's coming from that exact playground. I halt and listen._

_Silence._

"_Umpf! No pl-"_

_This time it's louder and a lot clearer – a woman's voice. I try to make out its origin, but it's pretty_

_hard, because it's just so dark. Where's that damn moon when you need it?_

"_No! Help! Someo-" The desperate cry is cut down before the woman can finish it; instead, there's a_

_dull noise that could have belonged to a head being violently slammed against the ground. All I can_

_hear now is a rustle and a quiet chuckle, which definitely doesn't belong to a woman. I gulp._

_**This woman called for help. **_

_Her scream echoes in my head like a broken record. Over and over and over again._

_I know I have to do something, but I just can't stop my eyes from staring to that one spot, that the darkness so stubbornly refuses to reveal. Fear creeps up my spine and then I run. I run as fast as my feet can possibly take me, squeezing my eyes shut to blend out everything around me._

_I hear my footsteps on the asphalt as loud a shooting gun in the nightly silence. They make my ears hurt, so I stop and press my hands over the aching organs. Not for long, merely half a minute. Thus, I'm very much dumbstruck that there's daily noise everywhere, when I remove my hands. Cars, motorcycles, people shouting and talking like they had been doing it for their entire lives. I open my eyes. The world around me is crowded and full of life and energy and – most importantly – _bright_; there's sunlight illuminating everything. Yet, I don't bother to wonder about that. I have to call the police._

"_Excuse me, lady!" I yell to an old woman nearby. Her head turns in my direction confusedly. _

"_Do you mean me?" she asks and I nod. "I need to call the police. Do you happen to have a cell phone with you?"_

"_Me? No, that's far too much wasted money for someone like me", she laughs. "But there's a pay phone close to that playground a few streets away." I freeze. _There's no way I'm going back there.

"_Care to tell me what happened?" She comes closer, curiosity and amusement sparkling in her small, dark eyes. _

_But I have no time to answer her because two strong arms suddenly grab me from behind, while a deep voice says, "No need to." It's the voice from the playground. One of the men who…_

"_Y-you!" the woman shrieks and steps back. "Go away, I don't want to be involved in this." After that being spoken she scurries away, not turning around even once. _

"_So, love. You wanted to call the cops? How very _naughty_ of you." Oh no. They saw me. This is not good. What am I going to do? Or a better way to phrase the question: What are _they_ going to do to _me_?_

_Out of the blue more hands begin to grab me; filthy, cold hands. They're on my legs, on my stomach, on my mouth, _everywhere_. I begin to scream for help but nobody comes. I don't get even one look from the people passing by._

"May!"

_I'm scared._

"May! Wake up!"

_But I can hear someone in the dark. Someone to rescue me is here._

"MAY!"

_Surely my prince has…_

"Drew?" I blinked a few times, trying to adjust my eyes to the sudden brightness around me. His handsome face was plastered with worry.

"May! Thank goodness!" he breathed out heavily and wiped his sweating forehead. "For a moment I thought you weren't going to wake up." A dream. It was a dream. Relief was now also spreading itself through my body.

"You were screaming for help, it was awful," Drew continued. "Did you have a nightmare?"

I merely nodded, answering orally wasn't something I was capable of doing yet.

"You're shivering", he exclaimed with a painful and unhealthy high amount of concern visible in his eyes. And before I could react he was already tugging me closer into his arms, while making sure I was completely covered with sheets. It helped. At least it helped me; _he_ only seemed to be even more worried when I looked up to his face.

"M-may…" he squeezed out, shifting slightly. His emerald eyes widened to their maximum extend. "There's blood." His finger pointed at a spot on my bed close behind me.

Oh, was it that time of the month again?

"Drew, that's normal. I'll take care of that in a second."

"'Take care of that?' How can you say that when there's so much blood! You must be bleeding somewhere very badly!" He was now officially panicking. It was actually kind of funny seeing him freak out like that because I was _menstruating_.

"Yes I am bleeding pretty badly. That's why I need to go to the bathroom now", I replied calmly, beginning to enjoy this more than I should have.

"Bathroom?! You need to see a doctor! We need an ambulance!" Okay, now he was absolutely exaggerating, which meant: Time to end this really pointless misunderstanding.

"Drew, I have my period."

Silence.

After a few seconds of processing data his mouth was forming a silent 'oh'. His cheeks then began to change their color rather drastically.

* * *

"So, you are going out now?"

"You already know the answer." I hated it when she played dumb.

"But I want to hear it from your mouth!" the redhead shouted. It was ever so lovely lunch break and Misty and I were currently talking about yesterday's events. Ash didn't, he was kind of occupied with something else. His food.

"Yes we are. Happy?" She pouted, indicating that she wasn't. But then she suddenly changed her expression again to completely content when she asked when our next date would be. I choked.

"W-what?"

"You're a couple now which means you're _dating_", Misty explained in very duh-like fashion. Somehow my mind had skipped that part and totally forgotten about it when I agreed to be Drew's girlfriend.

I wasn't quite sure if more than one date per life was even healthy, not to mention even possible when it involved Drew.

_Oh no._

"I…don't know," I finally answered.

"Should I arrange something?" Misty asked, squealing obnoxiously.

"No!" I spat and turned to Ash in the hope he might be willing to support me. Luck was not with me.

"Why not?" She was unhappy, that was obvious. It was also obvious why. Misty enjoyed this whole thing way too much.

"Because shut up!" I blurted out, causing Misty and even Ash to flinch. Good. I then came to the decision that it was the best to just leave the two for now, since Misty didn't look like she would stop pestering me about a second date with Drew anytime soon, whilst Ash didn't notice much around him besides his food (and drink). Thus, I simply walked out of the cafeteria, not bothering to look back.

After marching aimlessly through the school for a few minutes, I decided to head for the grass courts and relax under the shadow of one of the oak trees for a while. Yet, right after I'd made myself comfortable leaning against a tree trunk and enjoying the soft breeze, my cell started to ring. Oh fantastic.

"What?" I rudely barked in the receiver, not caring in the slightest who the victim of my anger could be.

"What a nice greeting, May."

"Gary?" I wasn't able to hide my surprise. Why would Gary Oak want to call me? And even more important: How the bloody hell did he get my number?

"The one and only."

Ignoring his arrogance, I moved on. "Hi. Um, may I ask where you got my number from?"

"A man never reveals his secrets to anyone," he replied smugly. "Not even to someone as cute as you."

I didn't exactly know why, but everxthing Gary's complement caused in me was disgust and irritation. "Thanks, I guess."

"But this is not what I wanted to talk about," he continued cheerfully. "In fact, my reason for calling you is of a completely different nature."

"Tell my about it." Why there was a hint of challenge in my tone, I wasn't entirely sure. Maybe it was because of his cryptic attitude, or maybe because he sounded so annoyingly confident, that I began to wonder why Drew was friends with him. Either way, I wanted a reply.

"I want to meet up with you tonight. There are things I need to discuss with you." Despite the hot and humid weather, his serious tone sent a chill down my spine.

* * *

_**A/N: **_Lol, cliffhanger (again).

Anyway, this chapter is…meh. I don't whether I love or hate it. You decide. Also it's kind of short compared to the others but I really needed to cut here, otherwise it would have sucked even more than it already does. :/

Explanation:

(1) It's sort of May's way to say goodbye to her love to Ash. I know it's kinda weird, but hey. Who isn't?

Anywaaaaaaay, I don't have much time right now, so _please_ **REVIEW** and read **The Ugly Truth** when it's out!

Much love,

Judy C:


	9. The Ladykilling Pimp

**A/N:** EDIT: OMG! Did you notice? This story's got a title now! X3 Credit to whoever reviewed and made the suggestion. (I just changed your idea a bit ;D)

Don't be angry at me if this chapter sucks ass but remember – I wrote this while I had goddamned flu and a fever of ca. 39-40 fucking degrees! My throat still hurts like Hell, I can't breathe through my nose, my head is going explode at any moment and I'm coughing my own brains out. Thank you for your understanding. If you'd excuse me now, I need to get a new box of tissues and—

_Runs off._

_Readers hear obnoxious coughing-like noises._

_Comes back, pants. _

_Readers scream at authors disgusting sick face. _

You get the idea?

Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm in such a pms-y mood, it's because – just like May – I've got my period right now and am bleeding like a fucking pig that's getting slaughtered. Or so the amount of blood in my bed tells me. I need new sheets . . .

Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

_Forces smile. Readers scream again.

* * *

_

**Chapter 9: The lady-killing Pimp**

"Would you tell me the purpose of this rather pointless meeting already?" Impatience along with annoyance dominated her tone.

It was all Gary could do not to snap at her. Did she think _he_ enjoyed meeting someone secretly at nine o'clock in the evening in some random park? Judging by her expression she probably did. That, however, did not mean it had to be true - because let me tell you - Gary Oak was not enjoying himself. No; in fact, he didn't think he was able to feel any more uncomfortable than at this very moment. But someone had to do this. And since Misty was about as useful as a French fried potato for something like this and all Ash ever seemed to care about was Pokemon, food, Pokemon, sleep, Pokemon and POKEMON, Gary was left as the lucky one to do it. But did anyone care? Did anyone on this planet appreciate what he was doing? No, of course not. All that people ever did was call him a playboy or heartless or stupid or...

Gary growled.

Yes, he was blessed with the perfect life.

"This meeting is everything but pointless."

"Enlighten me," she challenged. Yet, somewhere in the distance he believed to have heard uncertainty in her voice.

Gary sighed to cool off his anger. Time to get to business. "Do you like Drew?"

"_W-what_?" she immediately squeaked, confusion and some kind of embarrassment-shock-mix making her face turn a bright shade of red. It was a reaction he expected regarding the fact that the whole world seemed to love being in denial. Besides _him, _of course. Gary enjoyed the company of the other sex like nothing else and just couldn't understand how everyone around him kept calling him a lady-killing pimp. Especially not how they concluded that last part. He was so much more than that! For instance, right now he was trying to be a good friend.

Which led him back to the task at hand.

"Is the question really that hard to comprehend?" he mocked, although noting in the back of his head that this might not be the best time to do so.

"No," she fumed, barely able to contain herself. "I just think you're a pain in the ass!"

Gary snickered. "You sound so very much like him, I'll take that as a yes."

"WHAT?!"

"You look like you want to protest," Gary remarked oh so innocently. "Yet, wouldn't it be perfectly normal for a girl to _like_ her boyfriend?"

This had taken May aback. So much, in fact, that she wasn't even able to shriek anymore let alone speak. Gary scoffed at how predictable she was. He just hoped he wouldn't break everything he had so carefully built up in the past days with what he was about to explain to her. Females often tended to get very unreasonable (and _emotional_) about things and you never knew what kinds of effects could be provoked in their frivolous minds.

"Well," May began, having apparently found her voice back. "I never said I wanted to be his girlfriend."

Gary's bemused façade dropped as did the corners of his mouth and in an instant he moved so close to her he was sure he felt her breath on his face.

Everything was going scarily according to plan.

"Then why did you agree to it?" he asked. His voice was husky and low and just like his body language he knew it was frustratingly sensual. Every woman and probably even some men would have fallen head over heels for him.

Would have.

May, however, did not look like she had. Granted, she looked flustered but not like she was attracted to him. Good.

Gary motioned away from her and waited for her to answer. Yet, all that left May's mouth were incoherent noises mumbled under her breath which were most likely supposed to be insults. Gary waited.

"What the Hell?!" she finally barked, but purposely kept her distance from the boy in front of her.

"Do you have a problem?"

"Yes," May shot back at him. "Yes I do! First you order me here to talk, then you ask me a question of which answer I don't think concerns you and now you try to hit on me!" She panted, being obviously exhausted after that outburst. It had never been as easy for her to scream or express her rage as it had been for Misty and today she even surprised herself a bit. Whereas Gary remained calm and composed, although not in his usual smug way, but in an indifferent kind of way.

"I don't get you," she continued after a little break, not as loud and furious as before, though. "I don't get whatever the Hell you want from me! What is it?"

"Fine," Gary bit out. He knew the best time was now. "I'll get to the point. This is ridiculous, anyways." But he avoided looking at her – or anything for that matter. Instead, he set his gaze on the grassy ground that (on a closer look) would need some new water soon if the heat continued. He shifted his feet.

"Drew is my friend."

It was an awkward statement and absolutely not what he had planned to say. Not yet, anyway. Still, it was something Gary felt was necessary for May to know before he could go on. After all, that was everything he was doing about. Drew.

Gary looked up, producing the most determined expression he could muster. There was no way he could back out because of embarrassment now. Besides, being embarrassed about it was pointless. At least, that was what he tried to tell himself. _Friendship is not embarrassing._

"And since he's my friend I want you to thoroughly reconsider what being his girlfriend will be like."

Carefully, Gary studied May's face as it changed, before she finally opened her mouth to respond. First it was shock, then confusion, then a mixture of both, then it was hesitation and now it was confusion again.

"What do you mean?" she asked dumbly.

Gary's eye twitched, while impatience and annoyance were again growing in him. One corner of his mouth dropped lower, so his face (along with the twitching eye, of course) made a perfectly obnoxious grimace. He was glad none of his ex-girlfriends were able to see him now.

"What I mean is that you might want to rethink this girlfriend matter a little," he slowly gritted out, thus even this slowcoach of a girl would finally understand. "After all, you never wanted to be his girlfriend."

Her face fell and instead of the previous confusion, guilt now made its way up her cheeks. It caused Gary's insides to cringe a little but he had to continue. For friendship, for them, for Drew.

"But a relationship isn't about acting. Even if you're still young and not totally serious."

May bit her lip, looking like she knew what was coming.

"Drew really likes you," Gary said, locking his gaze with hers. "Make up your mind whether you do, too."

Her eyes widened a little, while her pupils were getting smaller and smaller. She shook. She was like a caught prey with hundreds of flashlights aimed at her and nowhere to run to Gary almost sardonically thought, but immediately dismissed it when she opened her mouth to say something. Yet, Gary quickly figured she wouldn't be uttering anything soon, though, since she closed it again after merely leaving it open for a few seconds and it was now a tight, thin line. Desperately he roamed through his brain for something to say. But nothing appropriate came to mind, no matter how he searched.

And so, after a few minutes had passed in awkward silence, as discreetly as humane possible, he began his retreat.

* * *

"_Hello, you reached _Cybersoft Videogames Entertainment_. Hayden my name. How can I help you?"_

"_I want my money back!" I angrily snap in the receiver, absolutely sure that I will._

"_Excuse me?" the calm voice at the other end says. It' sounding a little too calm if you ask me; smug even._

"_One of your games tried to kill me!"_

"What_?" Is -Is that guy laughing? I'm sure I heard laughter just now. What an ass._

"_I'm serious, you know," I say and I sound determined. Determined on definitely getting back my money._

"_Yes, I'm sure, Miss," the man snorts, then clears his throat. "Which game were you playing?" Ah, finally being serious, is he?_

"Hamster's Paradise_," I reply dryly, well aware that I'm kind of too old for playing games revolving around hamsters trying to save their world from evil cats. But I like them, they're cute. The hamsters, I mean._

_The man snorts again, but leaves the subject as it is. "And," he gives a little laugh, "how exactly did the game try to kill you?"_

"_Well," I begin, all of a sudden feeling rather stupid. Will anyone even believe me? I mean, it's not really what happens on a daily basis. And it __**is**__ pretty weird. _

"_Miss?" the man calls in his smug tone and just like that all doubts are gone. I'm going to give this guy a piece of my mind and he is going to believe me. Whether he wants it or not. _

"_The game came to life," I continue, shuddering at the awful memory. "It was totally creepy. I was at the last level and the main hamster suddenly sat in front of me and evolved into its next stage!" My voice is shaking now cold pearls of sweat are rolling down my forehead._

_The man remains calm (if not as arrogant as before) and just demands me to continue._

"_But it didn't evolve like it was supposed to," I squeeze out, while panic makes it hard for me to breathe. "It became a black, evil cat. It tried to kill me."_

_At that, the man howls with laughter. It's low and throaty and it makes my toes curl in anger in the furry carpet beneath them. I cannot believe this guy. How is he able to laugh after my terrible story?! It was horrifying for me; I deserve compensation._

"_I had to murder it with a bra, so it wouldn't murder __**me**__!"_

_But my desperate struggle is useless against this heartless man. He just goes on with his laughing. How mean is that? I was scared to death when that monster attacked me. I'm going to have scars on my arm for my whole life. Not to mention the trauma I will have. I mean, I'm probably never going to be able to play videogames ever again. And all because of this guy and the money I will need to afford professional therapy, but never get._

"_Miss."_

"_My life is ruined, just because-"_

"_**Miss**__!" Oh no, have I been saying that out loud?_

"_Err, yes?"_

"_Don't worry," the man says soothingly, while I'm wondering if I should just hang up and never leave my flat ever again. "'The evil cat' as you call it is absolutely normal."_

"_Come again?!" Is that guy nuts? Next he's going to tell me flying pigs are also 'absolutely normal'!_

"_The game you purchased is the old version," he states as if it would explain everything. But I can tell you – it doesn't. I am still highly confused and infuriated._

"_Actually we took back every game with the cat in it already one year ago, but _I guess_ there are still some floating around." I don't know what astounds me more. The fact that this company just sold homicidal videogames like ice cream (okay, it's not entirely the same) or that he actually sounds somewhat apologetic. _

"_So," I say after a short pause of consideration. "does this mean I'm getting back my money?"_

_Stifled giggles are the only response I get. Angry at the injustice of it all, I slam down the receiver and stomp into my bedroom in order to watch a good Monty Python to cheer me up. _

_But still in the same night a letter lies in my mail box which it's promised in that I will get back my money and even some compensation.

* * *

_

"And that's it?"

"Hm," was all I replied as I searched in my memory for something else. "Yes, I think so."

Misty pulled a face, before taking another sip of her strawberry milkshake. She furrowed her eyebrows, indicating that something wasn't to her liking at all. If one didn't know her they would think it was the milkshake.

We sat in a nice café called _Goleta's_ in the middle of Petalburg where lots of people were passing by but you still had your privacy. That had been an important criterion earlier that day when I'd decided to talk to Misty about my meeting with Gary and latest dream. At first also Ash had been eager to come, but after realizing that the purpose of it wasn't really delicious ice cream but 'girl talk' he had immediately backed out and said his mother needed him to run an errand.

"What?" I asked suspiciously, while I eyed her carefully. My stomach was turning upside down and somehow I couldn't help the thought that told me Misty's face had something to do with that nauseous feeling.

"I don't know," she finally said. I waited for her to add anything to it but it seemed she thought that was all that was needed for an answer.

"And what, dear Misty," I breathed out, trying to keep my cool. "Does that mean?"

"It means I have no idea what your dream is about."

I tried my best not to look too disappointed. _Figures_, I thought dryly and took a sip of my milkshake. It was chocolate flavored and a true life saver in the unforgiving heat. And the blaring rays of the sun weren't able to hit us under the umbrella we were sitting under either, so all things considered my current situation wasn't all that bad. Yet, I felt _bad_. I had hoped Misty would be able to help me with the newest dream since it hadn't been logical for me at all. But she really didn't look like she had any clue what it was supposed to mean.

"Sorry," she then suddenly sighed. She meant it. That, I could see. "But I just can't think sense into this one."

I merely shrugged and averted my look away from her to the if I honestly wanted to know. "The most interesting part for me is that you _keep dreaming about him_."

"Huh?"

"Don't you think it's, like, _unnormal_?"

It was hard to admit but she actually kind of had a point there. "You're right," (God, did it feel weird to say that), "I mean, why am I not dreaming about . . .-about" I was struggling with myself whether to say 'Ash' or not.

"Gary?"

"Yes! That's exactly who I meant!" I beamed in agreement, before realization struck my brain. "Wait! Why would I dream about Gary?"

"Because you two had that meeting last night?" Misty offered and shot me her typical 'duh' look.

First I was rather confused by that statement; then it clicked. "You're right," I exclaimed again and it was seriously scaring me. Misty was right. I was wondering if I was really supposed to like that. Especially after seeing her current expression. Not to mention her voice.

"May!" she squealed at an obnoxiously high rate. "Do you know what that means?"

I hardly shook my as fear crept up my spine. Why was Misty happy? Happy Misty was never good.

"It means you like Drew, too!"

* * *

_**A/N:**_ Okay, so we already knew _that_. But it's important that May does, too. ;)

Ahem, anyway. I hoped you liked this one even though it lacks everything – especially _Drew_. Everyone's been talking about him, but where is that guy? Has he disappeared? No, dear readers. I just made him hide under a rock until his big comeback in the next chapter.

LOLWHUT?

But onto something more serious. If only a little. :'D How did you like the dream? It was again based one of mine. (Btw, I had mine while being in some kind of fever delirium o.o) Only in my dream I wasn't talking about it – I was actually experiencing how the game came to life and the cat (which looked exactly like the cat I actually own, might I add) tried to kill me. So to put it simply: May's dream was a possible sequel to mine. :D

Other than that I actually enjoyed writing this chapter. Especially Gary's part. It was a nice change from always writing May or Drew. Besides, Gary just rocks. I mean – he's handsome and even has fan girls in the series and is cool and strong and Prof. Oak is his grandfather, BUT he still gives you the feeling that there's more to it. That he's more than a heartbreaker (which he certainly is, but you get my point?). I think he's also kinda lonely and perhaps wants his parents back (whatever really happened to them), and everything. Sorry, I'm ranting.

Have a nice day,

Your Coughingness

_**PS:**_ Kudos to silver-hedgehog who noticed the little wall abuse in the last chapter. I mentioned it there because I actually had run into a wall earlier that day and hurt my forehead so hard I was even bleeding a little xD But yeah, hoped you enjoyed all that Gary in this chapter ! 8D

_**PPS:**_ I know 'unnormal' isn't a word, but I simply don't care! :P


	10. Game Over

**Chapter 10: Game Over**

On my way home I thought about Misty's and my conversation. We had come to the conclusion that, yes, I did like Drew to some extend. The feeling wasn't as strong as the one I had felt toward Ash but it was there nonetheless. And if the relationship we both shared continued as it had up until now, it would most certainly even grow into something serious. The thought made me think. I hadn't been honest when dating Drew. Misty had forced me. I hadn't meant it. I hadn't been honest.

Gary was right.

But what did this really mean? What kind of consequences did this have?

If Misty's opinion was asked, it probably wouldn't have a single one. I, however, wasn't Misty and had an absolutely different opinion. Mine was that I didn't deserve Drew's attention or being his girlfriend. It felt like it was wrong, because at the time I had asked him out I hadn't liked him yet. It didn't feel fair. Yet, what was I to do? Ask Drew to redo our first date?

I blinked. _Asking Drew to redo our first date_ . . . It _had_ gone totally wrong, after all.

The idea sounded better and better and with each step I took my bad conscience melted into a tiny puddle before it eventually vanished completely. A smile curled up my lips. Now everything was settled. I didn't have to feel guilty anymore because of Gary's weird performance yesterday, I liked Drew (which complicated things but would definitely help me to forget Ash) and summer vacation was near. Dear Lord in Heaven didn't hate me, after all.

* * *

When I entered our estate I was quite baffled to see Mom, Peter, Max and Drew stepping out of the house and coming in my direction. They seemed equally surprised but also kind of relieved - it was weird.

"What's going on?" I asked cautiously and slightly confused at the image in front of me, as Peter locked the door. "Where are you going?"

Drew cocked an eyebrow, Max snorted and Mom shook her head.

"Excuse me?" I tried again.

"May," Mom called, smiling in an amused manner as if I was a five-year-old who needed to be reminded that the cookie jar was a no-no. "We're going shopping for Sunday."

Sunday? I asked myself bewildered and rummaged through my head in hope of finding anything to clear up my mother's cryptic statement. To my misery, I remained unsuccessful.

"What about Sunday?" I questioned out loud and began to feel rather stupid.

Max snorted again and pushed up his glasses, amusement causing a wide grin to spread over his face. "Are you serious?"

What kind of question was that supposed to be? Of course I was serious. Did he think I enjoyed making a fool out of myself? If so, he was horribly wrong.

Drew apparently had noticed my dissatisfaction with my brother's behavior, gave him a little smack on the head and motioned with his hand that he go and get in the car already. I have to admit, I was grateful for that. "May, Sunday's the wedding," he stated, his voice hesitant. My throat tightened and I went stiff. The wedding. How could I have forgotten about it? Mom had told us it was in a week. How could I have forgotten?

The answer was easy, of course, yet I still couldn't help but wonder. How could I have forgotten?

Slowly, Drew made his way toward me and lay a hand on my shoulder, but honestly, I was too entranced by my thoughts to notice. A date with a boy I barely knew had made me forget about an event of _that_ importance? How was that possible? Was it possible? Maybe I just didn't want to believe it was true and forgot it on purpose . . . But that wasn't right! I shouldn't forget about something like that, I shouldn't—

"May, Dear! What's wrong?"

It was then my mother stormed to us, away from Peter and Max who were waiting in the car, looking ready to leave. She looked genuinely worried. "Sweetie, why are you crying?"

Crying?

Only half-conscious, I moved my hand to touch the skin directly under my right eye. She was right; small waterfalls of tears were streaming down my cheeks. I hadn't noticed. Slightly shaking, I withdrew my hand and let it fall limply at my side. I hadn't noticed. I had forgotten. _Damn it._

"I think she didn't now that the wedding's on Sunday," Drew chimed in, switching glances between me and her. He sounded worried just like Mom.

"What?" Mom gasped out. "But I told you! You knew—"

"No, I didn't," I finally managed to grind out and locked my gaze with hers. I knew it wasn't entirely her fault. But who else was there to blame? And I _needed_ someone to focus my anger on. I was a teenager and my patience lasted only for so long. "You just said it was in a week. You never mentioned the day!" My voice rose with every word, as did my frustration. I clenched my fists until the knuckles went white. Tears continued to flow. I felt pathetic, stupid, useless. Why was I always the one who everyone left out? Why, why, why—

Why had I forgotten? I could have asked. I should have asked.

"May, I'm sorry," Mom breathed out. I could tell she meant it, but I was way too riled up to care. There was no chance I would forgive her just yet.

"Good for you," I spat, and shook off Drew's hand that had still lain on my shoulder. I didn't want to be touched. I just wanted to be left alone.

"I think it's best you guys go alone for now and we stay here," Drew suggested and I was surprised to find his tone calm and not one bit appalled or angry at me for just snapping his hand off of me. It was like he perfectly understood the state I was in. And in a way, I concluded, he probably did.

* * *

"Why did you do that?" barked, less furious than before, yet 'cool' wasn't an expression one would describe me with, either.

We sat at the kitchen table, both of us holding onto a glass of lemonade. Already fifteen minutes had passed since Mom and the others had left shopping for 'wedding stuff'. I still wasn't exactly sure what that meant but according to Drew it most likely consisted of getting Max a tux. Apparently the wedding had been planned for quite a long time, so Mom's dress was already bought, just as the proper outfits for Peter and Drew himself. The location was set, as well (the marriage would take place in the church near Petal Creek and after that there was going to be a party in an exclusive restaurant only a small walk away) and the invitations had been sent already two months ago.

This had – and I guess that's very much understandable – shocked me so strong I'd almost fainted again, but I had managed to pull myself together. Losing consciousness once in front of Drew was more than enough.

"Why did I do what?" he asked playfully and took a sip of his drink. He knew I had chilled down at least a little and now decided to make me feel better through distraction. And although he didn't say this out loud – obviously – I was able to tell from the way his smirk would change from time to time into an actual smile and his eyes glinted with true concern.

I groaned. "You know very well what I mean. Don't act dumb."

Drew laughed, low but melodic. Another moment which the mask of his supposed smugness cracked in. I wondered if there were any other girls beside me who got to see the real Andrew Hayden. Or had ever gotten to. It was weird imagining Drew with another girl than myself. It didn't fit no matter how the face in my fantasy changed. Merely I seemed to look right. _Wait._

I choked on my lemonade and started coughing violently. Had I just been . . . jealous?

"May?" Drew scoffed, yet patted my back gently. "Everything alright?"

Still huffing from (almost) inhaling lemonade, I nodded and after another few seconds looked up to him. Instantly, my breathing stopped. His face was so incredibly close to mine I would have been able to count every single of his eyelashes if I'd felt the urge to. The low afternoon sun tinted everything – including his face – a kind of yellow-orange, making the color of his eyes look a lot brighter than usual. Also I couldn't help but notice how rosy his lips looked in the light of the fading day. How kissable. Normally, a thought like that would have made me jump up and flush in embarrassment, still, at that very moment time, space - everything around us seemed to have ceased to exist. And somehow it had also been able to freeze us. At least until we both slowly began motioning towards each other, halting just at the spot where our lips couldn't touch, my nose brushed his and breathes mingled. Overwhelmed by it all, I broke under all these new sensations and tore my gaze from his, averting it downward – stopping at his lips for a second – before eventually resting and staring at the ground.

Was I ready for this?

It was definitely an appropriate question when regarding the fact that I had never done this before and the only person I had thought of doing it with had been Ash. The opinion of the voice in the back of my head, however, seemed once more to be from a completely different nature. In fact, it told me to 'go for it'. And even though obeying to the command of some voice in my head probably didn't sound very reasonable I found myself giving in when Drew lightly tucked at my chin, and then lifted it up to look me in the eyes. He was confirming that I really wanted this. I hesitated again, waiting for some sort of sign to either tell me to stop or to continue. Unfortunately, it was just like in the Pokémon games; once you started a new game you had to decide whether you really wanted to delete all the obtained data from the last round. You alone were the one who could press the button. There was no-one else to do it for you.

Should I really throw all my feelings from before away and do this? Just like Mom did now? Was I ready yet?

**Yes **_or_** No?**

And this was it. My sign.

"I can't do this!"

With all the strength I could muster I pushed him away, causing him to trip and fall. He grunted as he collided with the cold hard marble floor. A part of me hoped he didn't break his neck. The other was still too busy with organizing the emotional chaos in my brain to care.

Taken aback at my own action, I stared at my feet. Hopefully, he wouldn't be mad at me. Hopefully, he wouldn't hate me for what I'd done. Hopefully, he would understand.

I could feel him stare at me, his gaze practically burning a hole in my body to reveal the wrecked up girl within. Away, I thought desperately. I have to get away.

And just like the coward I was I spun on my heel and ran for it.

Behind me Drew shouted my name and judging from the heavy steps echoing in the empty house he probably even followed me. Although I wasn't quite certain. They might as well have been mine.

That night I dreamt nothing. It made waking up the next morning sort of strange since I had gotten accustomed to having those dreams in the past days. In a way you could even say I liked them. After my father had died my nights had mostly contained nightmares in which at first everyone around me died and then at very end it was my turn. Only recently they had begun to stop and Mom, Max and me, all three of us had been highly grateful for it. The fear that one day they would return was still existent though. But the dreams about Drew – however weird it was – had helped me. They had made me feel safe.

Now it was as though something important was missing and I couldn't get it back no matter what I did. Yes, I regretted refusing yesterday. And even if it was just because I hadn't dreamt anything. Even though – truth be told – I did think about what could have been. About how kissing Andrew Hayden would have felt and if his lips really were as soft as they had looked.

Throughout all morning I did my best to avoid him and stayed almost the whole time in my room. Luckily, nobody came in to have a conversation with me. I was especially happy that a certain grass head didn't. It gave me a opportunity to reflect on everything that had happened in order to decide how our relationship was going to continue. Trying to escape talking to him or even looking at him was okay for now but there was no way I could keep this up on the long run. Sooner or later the confrontation would come.

This realization struck me at the latest when around noon Mom called me to her and Peter's bedroom and she showed me the dress I was supposed to wear on their wedding the next day. I didn't know what kind of fabric it was but it felt smooth and slightly cold on my skin - I liked it. It stopped just above my knees and a thin black ribbon slung around me right under my chest, that was held together by a fake red rose. The gown's color was just a few shades darker than the flower.

I was amazed. Not solely by the dress but also by fact that my mother had actually found something that fit my tastes. Smiling, I turned away from the mirror I had been looking myself at and looked at Mom. She also smiled, and in her eyes I could make out true bliss. This was the moment I snapped. It was the first moment after a long period of time that she was happy and – as hard as it was to admit this – she deserved it. And so did I. We both deserved to have a life and move on. It may sound weird but up until this kind of thought had felt wrong, forbidden even. But the joy of my mother showed me that it was okay, and somewhere in the depths of my heart I knew I yearned for it, as well. I wanted to try to live like this and be happy. Even if it had seemed outrageous at first, moving here had taught me that, and I was more than thankful for it.

* * *

**A/N: **Hello everybody! How are you doing? I'm doing just fine, thank you. :)

I have to admit the last couple of weeks have been rough for me but I'm a lot better (although I still have little insomnia problem) and **I have regained my inspiration** to write and draw. *cheers*

But I do have bad news for you guys. **The next chapter of Moving is most likely also going to be the last**. Some of you might have noticed already that this fic's climax is drawing close; and those of you who have not, well, sorry but that's how things go. Every story has to end at some point and the wedding will be this special point for this one. So look forward to it, okay? :3

On another note I want you guys to go to my profile after your read this and **vote in my poll** to decide **which fiction should come next** since I'm kind of unsure. ^^;

The summaries to all options are on my profile page. Please do it, I'd highly appreciate it!

So, Good Night then and perhaps drop a **_REVIEW_** even?

Judy :o))


	11. Come What May

**A/N:** I have titled it with one of the most overused and clichéd titles ever, and yessir, I am ashamed of myself.

**Warning:** Extremely shortness and suckage ahead. Read at your own risk.

**Disclaimer:** Me no owney.

**Chapter 11**

Come What May

Weddings suck.

Especially if you're the daughter of the bride. They suck really bad, I can assure you of that. Really, really bad. Why? Because you have to get up freaking early in the morning in order to get your make up and hair done, while comforting your mother in her pre-wedding anxiety. Why do so many brides get scared just at the big day, anyways? I mean, they planned the whole thing for months and were anticipating the date like crazy. Mom even encircled it in flaring pink on our calendar in the kitchen, so why is she trying to back out now?

Weddings suck, suck, suck, suck.

"May!"

Here we go again.

"Coming, Mom!"

"May, you have to help me," Mom whined, to my confusion only half-way in her wedding dress.

"What's going on?" I asked and stepped closer. She looked like she was about to cry – which was completely out of the question since her expensive make up would be ruined, so I decided to help with whatever the problem _now_ was. As long as her face stayed as it was.

"I can't close it," she whimpered and I could already see those dreading, small, sparkling droplets forming in her eyes. Oh Hell no.

"Mom, don't panic; I'm sure we can fix this," I tried to act all strong and reliable but it sounded more like weak pleading. Okay, it was weak pleading but I really did not need to have any more stress with the make up; she'd already ruined it by crying today, thus we had to make a detour back to the stylist to do it again . . . twice. I especially wasn't willing to do that again since the ceremony was going to start in about ten minutes and we were already late. Horribly so.

"How will we do that? It just won't fit," Mom almost cried as my breath hitched. I had had it with stylists, make up and dresses and WEDDINGS. No way I would go there again. Not before my own wedding, anyway.

"It's okay, Mom. Just, under no circumstances, cry," I tried to remind her in the hope of her stopping. "Let me try it, okay?"

She did.

With all the strength I could muster, and without ripping apart her gown of course, I began my dreadful task. To my and Mom's luck, I remained successful and, after three long minutes, won the battle against the Zipper of Doom. It must've been the Zipper of Doom, the way that thing just _refused_ to close.

That, however, did apparently nothing to lighten up my mother's mood. She still looked pretty stressed, ready to burst of anxiety. Why couldn't she be happy? Why couldn't she be like she had been yesterday? She was destroying my day, and even worse my plan!

"Would you please cheer up? It's supposed to be the best day of your life." Again my voice sounded more pleading than determined. I really needed to change that.

"May, you don't understand," she whispered. She was shaking. "I'm scared."

It was all I could do not to snort. "And of what, may I ask?"

"Of everything! My first husband died, how will I know that my second one will not!"

"DON'T CRY!"

It was too late. Oh joy.

*

Drew was annoyed – angry even. Impatiently, he tapped his fingers against the wooden surface of the table he was sitting at. Why was he angry and annoyed, you ask? Well, for starters, he'd almost kissed the girl he was in love with yesterday, before said girl and by the way also his (soon-to-be) step sister ran away. Who wouldn't feel at least slightly angry after that? Secondly, his stupid, stupid father and groom of the day was behaving even stupider than usually. In fact, it was ridiculous. Peter was acting like a nervous wreck and sweating all over. Drew couldn't understand why. Caroline had already agreed to become his wife, this was only the final confirmation.

"What if I can't bring out even one word?" Peter cried again; it was about the fifteenth time Drew guessed his father had asked that now.

He stopped bothering to answer after the second time. He simply didn't have the nerves to at the moment. There were far more important things occupying his center of attention.

_His girlfriend had not wanted to kiss him._

It had been hard for him not to just stomp over to May and ask why the bloody fuck not – Hell, it was hard not to even now – but he had decided to wait; to wait until she came on her own to explain her reasons. But Lord was it hard. He wanted to know it now. Not knowing made him feel like he was out of control of things, which he was, he had to admit. It tore him apart. Him and his manly pride. He wasn't entirely sure which was hurting more.

_His girlfriend had not wanted to kiss him._

The sentence repeated itself over and over and over again.

*

Weddings didn't only suck, they were also very boring and incredibly sentimental.

Two thirds of the guests were literally crying a river. The other third consisted of sleeping, at least 65 years old men, a few lesbians (_Don't ask, my family's weird_.) and Drew's grandparents, who apparently seemed to hate my mom's guts. No wonder Drew was such a prick sometimes.

Anyway, you have no idea how relieved I was when it was finally over. Being the daughter of the bride is more stressing than it sounds, really. Okay, I hadn't really been doing anything besides standing a hole into my stomach and doing a really bad job at faking a smile, but hey, after fixing Mom's make-up again and successfully ignoring Drew (_I'm positively sure he hates me now_.), you couldn't have honestly been expecting big wonders from me, now could you?

When the ceremony and Mom and Peter's unnecessarily long and extremely corny kiss were finished, the whole crowd, including me of course, moved on to the restaurant that had been booked for the day. Its name was (unsurprisingly) The Happy Cow and it was originally a milkshake bar. I didn't even bother to ask Mom what stuff she'd been high on when she had decided to hold the wedding party there. Instead, I got myself a large plate of something that looked like beef but tasted like pork along with an extra large chocolate milkshake – the speciality of the house – and ran off to a quiet place at Petal Creek's waterfront, before Drew could even spot or grab a hold of me.

So, I know, earlier I said Mom had been ruining my plan and I also know or rather guess that you're probably asking yourself by now what this ominous plan could be since I didn't really do anything particular of interest up until now, but . . . well, I backed out of it. Sorry, for building up suspense for something that doesn't even happen; though I have to admit it might have worked. I planned to go through the wedding perfectly and show off to everyone how controlled and lady-like I was able to be, and then later in the evening I would go to Drew and ask him to dance with me in a totally sexy manner to make up for my rudeness yesterday and perhaps make out with him a little, before going to bed contently.

The only flaw in my ingenious plot was that I was and am a pathetic coward, who doesn't go through with anything. Thus, I spent most of the rest of the day at the creek eating an irrational big amount of meat and spilling The Happy Cow's speciality all over my dress. The only visitor I had was Mom, who wanted me to go celebrate with her and the others, but she wasn't really persistent, so she was gone soon again.

I didn't mind the solitude all too much; it was a nice change to all the trouble and events of the last week. The scenery was beautiful with all its trees and flowers and birds, and in the almost evening sun, Petal Creek looked absolutely gorgeous. Even more gorgeous than the green haired figure that approached me in the same moment. If his face hadn't been scrunched up in an expression of pure fury, it would have been the other way around.

It took my brain several moments to comprehend the situation. Then I started wailing like someone had just died.

"Stop that," Drew barked when he reached me and shot me a fierce look.

I did. Other than that, I had no clue what to do though. Apologizing originally seemed like a good idea, but Drew didn't look like that would be enough to satisfy and fully calm him. So I just sat there in my with chocolate milkshake ruined dress and did nothing.

Characteristically, Drew laughed. I wasn't even surprised when he began to snicker and after a couple of seconds completely gave in into a fit of laughter. It seemed natural, necessary, so I joined in. Together, just the two of us, we didn't need anything else at that moment. Suddenly, everything looked easy to me, not half as complicated as just 24 hours before, and I felt invincible. I guess, now that I'm telling you this, that love does that to someone. And on that day, I can assure you, I was very in love.

THE END.

* * *

**A/N:** This is the end, people. I know you've been expecting teh great mush with a pompous wedding a lots of making out (especially since I took so long; sorry, but I caught the flu :x), but I wanted to break the tradition and DIDN'T end it with a kiss. Besides, I wouldn't have felt right if I had. This is my story and I can do with it whatever the Hell I want. That's just how evil I am.

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me to everyone who did. I appreciate it loads and I think I also have improved thanks to you guys. This one was for you, even though it might not have ended the way you wanted it. Maybe we'll see each other again in one of my other stories? It would be a pleasure.

Sincerely,

Judith


End file.
